Melted Firearms To Be Displayed at Sheriff’s Open House in Brooklyn Park

The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office is hosting an open house in Brooklyn Park this weekend. Visitors will get to see some rather unique items.

The Sheriff’s Office recently took 660 pounds of confiscated firearms to a steel foundry and had them melted down. The guns were used in robberies and other various crimes.

The foundry turned those firearms into 11 bricks, each representing about 50 guns.

“It’s nice that they’re off the streets and they won’t harm anyone,” said Major Rick Palaia of the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office. “They’re out of the hands of criminals. And then it’s nice that we’re able to memorialize that and show it to people that we’re taking these guns off the street, we’re destroying them in the interest of public safety.”

Two of the bricks that were once firearms. Each brick represents about 50 guns.

Several of those bricks will be on display during an open house at the Sheriff’s patrol headquarters, located at 9401 83rd Avenue N in Brooklyn Park, on Saturday, May 18.

The open house goes from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and will feature demonstrations from the K9, SWAT Team and dive teams units for families to enjoy.

Lunch will be provided for attendees.

“Sometimes at parades or special events when we’re working those in different cities, people have a chance to get out and talk to us and be able to interact with us, so that is good,” said Lt. Bill Gottwaldt of the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office. “And this [open house] is really good too because people, they’re coming and they’re like, ‘ope, I’m not getting pulled over. And now here’s my interaction with a police officer or a deputy.’ It’s a chance to talk to them and learn a little bit more about what we do, and then we can learn a little bit more about what people do.”

Related: Brooklyn Park Police Raise Concerns About Rise of ‘Ghost Guns’

Brooklyn Park