LOS ANGELES, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) -- The Police Department in the U.S. city of Colorado Springs may sell confiscated firearms to federally-licensed gun dealers in an apparent bid to stem fiscal woes, it was reported on Sunday.

    The department is expected to be given the endorsement in the coming weeks once the Colorado Springs City Council approves the final details of the program, according to the Los Angeles Times.

    Police in the city have already stopped melting down the hundreds of guns they collect from crime scenes, drug houses or civilians who don't need them anymore, said the paper.

    The sales are projected to be able to bring in about 10,000 dollars a year, only a slight dent for a city that faced a deficit of one-quarter its 200-million-dollar annual budget this year. But it still helps, said Vice Mayor Larry Small, who proposed the gun sales.

    "Every penny counts," Small was quoted as saying by the paper.

    The idea of law enforcement as gun sellers has raised some eyebrows in Colorado Springs, home to the Army's Ft. Carson, the Air Force Academy and the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD).

    Jan Martin, the lone Council member who voted against the sales, said the small amount of money they could bring in is outweighed by the risk that a gun sold by the city could one day be used for a crime.

    "I remember what some of those weapons were used for," Martin said. "Just the idea of putting those weapons back on the street is unconscionable."

    The International Association of Chiefs of Police cautions against law enforcement agencies selling weapons they have seized. Destroying the firearms, it says, is a better policy. No one tracks the number of agencies that make sales, but officials believe it to be very small.