JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri is considering changing its policy of trading used police guns for resale in the wake of a deadly shooting at a local factory, a state official said Wednesday.

Gov. Bob Holden expressed concerns about the practice just days after the July 1 shooting at Modine Manufacturing Co., where employee Jonathon Russell killed three co-workers and injured five others before killing himself.

Beginning last November, the Missouri State Highway Patrol traded about 1,400 of its Glock .40-caliber semiautomatic pistols to a suburban Kansas City wholesaler for about the same number of new Glocks, upgraded with attachable flashlights.

One of those used pistols -- stamped with the patrol's distinctive emblem and the agency initials "MSHP" -- was resold by the wholesale police supplier to Bob's Guns & Knives in Jefferson City. Bob's Guns sold it in June to Russell, who used it in the crime.

"We're trying to do something different rather than let them get in the hands of the public," Charles Jackson, the director of the Department of Public Safety, said Wednesday.

Capt. Chris Ricks, a spokesman for the patrol, said there is no written policy about the resale of guns but the issue of trading will be looked at the next time the patrol replaces its weapons. Since 1971, the patrol has traded older weapons for new ones four times.

"The next time we are ready to make a trade I'm sure we'll take a look at the results of our last trade and whether to consider doing something differently," Ricks said.

The patrol, like many law enforcement agencies, considers it cost-efficient to barter old firearms in deals for new weapons, something Jackson said was the case when the patrol's guns were sold last year. Whether the patrol will be able to afford new weapons is likely to again be a consideration when the patrol next upgrades its weapons, Jackson said.

"At that time, there will be discussion of the financial picture," Jackson said. "The last time, the money wasn't available."

Patrol officials have said the trade of weapons saved the state about $500,000, money that would have otherwise been spent to purchase new weapons.

Holden spokeswoman Mary Still said the governor was pleased to hear the patrol's policy is being reworked.

"I think that's the desired result to have the resale go to law enforcement," Still said Wednesday. "Fewer guns on the street is a good thing and not a bad thing."

Among the eight states bordering Missouri, the state patrols in Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky and Tennessee have resold their old weapons to wholesalers while in Oklahoma and Nebraska the guns are returned to weapons manufacturers. In Arkansas, two gun upgrades in the 1990s resulted in the purchase of all the old weapons by members of the Arkansas State Police.

------

On the Net:

Department of Public Safety: http://www.dps.state.mo.us

Gov. Bob Holden: http://www.gov.state.mo.us