The Richmond County Sheriff's Office has run out of space to store confiscated weapons and plans to auction them off to licensed firearms distribution companies.

The Augusta Chronicle reports (http://bit.ly/1hpSS5N) that the auction is scheduled to start at the end of the month.

The sheriff's office said in a statement that it has run out of space to store more than 5,000 firearms that were forfeited or abandoned. The seized guns must be sold at auction or stored by the agency according to Georgia law.

The firearms up for auction include a large number of handguns and hunting rifles. Full auto, street combat style, stolen and illegal firearms and guns used in homicides will not be auctioned.

A pre-bid viewing for distribution companies will be Oct. 25.

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Information from: The Augusta Chronicle , http://www.augustachronicle.com