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Gun Buy Back
updated: Jan 09, 2013, 8:09 PM

By Edhat Subscriber

I've been seeing news coverage about gun buy back programs. They are run by police agencies, and on a given day and time at a collection site people can turn over a gun in exchange for a small cash sum or gift cards. Thousands of guns have been relinquished as a result of programs across the country, and they are destroyed.

Do people think a local law enforcement agency should conduct one of these programs here? We don't have a lot of shootings here, but maybe it's good to get any surplus guns out of circulation. What do others think?

Comments in order of when they were received | (reverse order)

COMMENT 361924	2013-01-09 08:48 PM
Definitely a great idea for any city.
COMMENT 361937P	2013-01-09 09:33 PM
Do it City & County of SB! Gift cards to either Best Buy, Sears or Costco.
COMMENT 361944P	2013-01-09 10:42 PM
Sounds good. And there are more shots heard calls than you realize.
COMMENT 361945P	2013-01-09 11:00 PM
If there are any "surplus" guns, they'd be better off to take them to one of the gun stores for resale or consignment sale. Not surprisingly, gun buy back programs from LE tend to get a lot of stolen guns. Legit gun owners in California report stolen guns -- make, model, serial number -- and that's all on file. It's a requirement, and there's a form at the California DoJ firearms bureau to use to report the stolen guns. So, if some crook steals a gun and turns it in at a "gun buy back," do the cops return the gun to the legit owner? & arrest the crook? No & no. Most of the time, it's no questions asked and money paid. That's sort of like asking crooks to steal things and then having the cops reward them with money for doing it. Hold crooks accountable; don't reward them.
COMMENT 361962	2013-01-10 06:53 AM
In addition to what 945 mentioned I will gladly pay double the gift car rate for any "surplus" type firearms !
COMMENT 361964	2013-01-10 06:58 AM
With over 200 million firearms in the United states 88 per 100 people, there is simple no way of removing them from the hands of citizens. Oh, and your gift card idea, that costs tax payers money..not cool by me. "I'll give you my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead hands" - Charlton Heston
SQUIRREL FRIEND	2013-01-10 07:02 AM
You know what would really make for a feel-good presser is if Helene gets Cam to borrow the same tired grenade launchers that Charlie Beck drags out as newly confiscated/turned in weapons. The adoring public goes wild and there's pats on the back all around. Cam will look like a star and Helene will get lunch with Lois and Jerry.
COMMENT 361975	2013-01-10 07:20 AM
Keep your guns people,when this economy crashes and it will crash.You might feel a little better with that ugly, mean spirited gun in your home.
COMMENT 361976	2013-01-10 07:25 AM
Why would any law abiding citizen give up theit right to own a gun and protect them and their families. This whole gun control and gun bans are stupid if these type of things take affect only cops and criminals will have guns. I can say im a proud Democratic gun owner and no one will take my right as an American only from my cold dead hands will i ever give up my guns.
COMMENT 361979	2013-01-10 07:29 AM
Gun bubacks aren't intended to remove all guns, they're intended to remove guns that are unused, unneeded, and serve no purpose other than to create a potential danger. They do check serial numbers for stolen guns and return them to the owners if they were, but most of them are being turned in by their owners who simply don't want them in their house any longer. And the recent gun buyback in LA was sponsored by Ralphs and area non-profits, with no tax money involved.
COMMENT 361990	2013-01-10 07:44 AM
I am 100% anti-gun. I am also 100% anti-gun-buyback. What a waste of taxpayer money.
COMMENT 361991	2013-01-10 07:47 AM
Well, the non-profits usually get some kind of public funding so it's probably not strictly correct to say that no tax money was involved in the LA Buy Back. Along with the buy backs, there are also stories that people are flooding to the gun shows to buy assault rifles and stock up on ammo. Mass shootings in the US are a fact of life, and the only way to avoid them is to become a recluse or move to a country with fewer guns. I can't wait for the first armed citizen to get involved in a public shootout and take out a few innocent bystanders. I just hope I'm not one of them.
COMMENT 361996	2013-01-10 07:53 AM
@985 "here's hoping you accidentally shoot yourself while fumbling for your gun to thwart the home invader." If you want to play the part of peaceful liberal, that's not the way to do it. I think it's funny that some people think that all gun owners are irresponsible and don't know how to use them properly.
COMMENT 361997P	2013-01-10 07:54 AM
OP here. Wow, kinda a lot of agitation on some posts. 79 got it right. No one is trying to take your guns away, folks. Calm down. Buy back programs address unwanted guns that could end up stolen or harming someone accidentally in a household. Many of the programs use donated funds or merchants donate the gift cards. It saddens me that people are so quick to freak out about government spending and taxes, they don't wait to ask questions or gather facts.
ROGER DODGER	2013-01-10 08:02 AM
They can have my potatoe gun when they pry my cold fingers from it.
SQUIRREL FRIEND	2013-01-10 08:03 AM
Yes, it's all coexist and pass the soda crackers til someone gets all wee-wee'd up. tsk tsk. That didn't take long. Question for the OP: where you saddened by the comments of 991 and 985, as well.
COMMENT 362007	2013-01-10 08:05 AM
@994 If you don't see the "police state" I suggest you do your research! We have a President in office that is currently doing his part to pee all over the Bill of Rights and our Constitution right now as we speak. They're not getting any of my guns, we would not be America without them! @985 Perhaps you don't realize it was people fighting for freedom with guns that gives you the First Amendment right to spout off like that.
COMMENT 362012	2013-01-10 08:09 AM
Have you ever seen what comes in from a gun buyback? Mostly broken junk that was in the back of someone's closet. No gang banger ever brings his glock to a buyback, only old widows and grandkids bringing their busted family squirrel rifles.
SQUIRREL FRIEND	2013-01-10 08:22 AM
Again for the OP- just a suggestion for the future but when you ask at the end of a post what do readers think, it would help us to know in advance which direction the comments should lean. Then you'd be spared having to swing that enormous mallet from behind your back. Because, if it injured you, we'd be reading another rope-a-dope post about what do readers think about mallet buy backs and to "calm down".
COMMENT 362057	2013-01-10 09:36 AM
985 just to say im no "maroon". If someone was breaking into my i would give them.the fair warning to speak up and get out. I have b extensive training in the use of firearms as I had proudly served my country. Fumbling my gun around to thwart a home invader come on u cant expect the police to be there as it happening i mean think about that one.
COMMENT 362061P	2013-01-10 09:44 AM
I have been in places that have non-monetary turn-ins, and they do quite well. It is my understanding that the heap of guns is just compacted.
J S	2013-01-10 09:45 AM
SQUIRREL FRIEND (re 07:02 AM comment): I watched a clip of the LAPD mayor and chief of police waving their fearsome expended grenade launcher tube. What a couple of clowns. As you may know, these are one-use weapons, and absolutely cannot be reloaded — so the empty tubes are about as useful as a soda can after the Pepsi has been consumed. I wonder if these can still be purchased for $5 or $10 at flea markets and surplus stores. A new business idea: buy for $5, sell to the LAPD for $100 so they can use it for their scary press conferences. Notice how much of what is turned in at these are old rifles with wood stocks; who couldn't use an extra $100 to buy a modern rifle with a black plastic composite stock, perhaps a .22, which is not much more than a pea-shooter, but that Feinstein and all the other uninformed, hypocritical, screeching anti-gun nuts, were they to be shown a photo of one, would declare it to be an "assault rife" because the stock is plastic rather than wood.
COMMENT 362063	2013-01-10 09:46 AM
If Santa Barbara does have a buy back,look for me, I will be the guy right across the street flying a big American flag. I will pay you 5 times the buy back rate for a Browning,Ruger,Remmington,or Winchester.Plus I will even pay for the BACK ROUND CHECK.
COMMENT 362074	2013-01-10 09:55 AM
I've got an old .22 rife that's worth approximately $0 that I'd drop off in a second if I knew I could do it with no hassle, no government list, no ID check, etc. It's not really good for much more than plinking and squirrel hunting. It's not going to stop a bear or help me regulate a militia.
COMMENT 362077	2013-01-10 10:01 AM
I American. I love guns. Look at my guns! Stupid anti-gun people hate America. They hate freedom. My gun means I have freedom. I love my guns! I American.
COMMENT 362080	2013-01-10 10:06 AM
Here's some fun facts. LA's buy back program netted about 2,000 guns, including about 75 assault weapons in just one week. Yet, about 2,000 weapons are sold in California in just one day! And that is every day folks! Last, since the Newtown shooting, over 600 people have been shot and killed in the US!
COMMENT 362099	2013-01-10 10:34 AM
077: Contrary to popular belief, the cavemen did not have firearms. Your argument is invalid. As long as there is no cost to tax payers (like, NO COST, not little cost, which I'm not sure is totally possible), I have no issue with it. I don't think it'll do much, but for people like 074, it'd be a great way to get some unused guns out of homes they don't need to be in.
J S	2013-01-10 10:35 AM
074, regarding your old .22: My understanding is that most, if not all, of these buyback programs, though (re 979s comment @ 07:29) some do check serial numbers AFTERWARDS, they are no questions asked, no ID required, at the time of turn-in — so you might consider confirming this and take advantage of one, should one be convenient for you. In fact, one of the many criticisms of these is that because they are no questions asked, they encourage and enable criminals to steal guns from law-abiding owners to sell to the taxpayer at these events (so even if the gun is later determined to have been stolen and thus returned to its rightful owner, there's no consequences to the thief who got paid). Obviously those running these buybacks know this, but they mostly care that the stacks of old, broken, and recently stolen guns are as high as possible for their press conferences.
COMMENT 362119	2013-01-10 10:53 AM
Can't wait. My father gave me an old .22 which I have no use for. Of course, with the onerous California gun regs, I can neither legal own it or sell it without the involvement of a licensed gun dealer. It would cost more than these gift cards to make it legal, and the gun isn't even worth that (hasn't been cleaned in a decade).
COMMENT 362123	2013-01-10 10:54 AM
@361976 It's a gun buy back program, not a gun right buy back program. @362077 Your parody captures the Alex Jones-like folks quite well. Charlton Heston had Alzheimer's and is now cold and dead.
COMMENT 362129	2013-01-10 11:01 AM
Sigh. Just reminding folks that more than half of gun deaths are suicides, and that you are more apt to die from gunshot if you own a gun than if you do not. The Supreme Court changed its interpretation of the 2nd amendment in (I think it was 1988) for the first time recognizing it to give an individual right to bear arms, rather than a right to be a part of a well-regulated citizen militia such as Switzerland has. US gun-death statistics are a shame and travesty. Acquiescing to such carnage and calling it "freedom" instead of barbarism is a triumph of propaganda.
RESTLESS NATIVE	2013-01-10 11:04 AM
If you want to give away your guns, that's completely within your rights. It is also a right that anyone who wants to keep or purchase a gun will have that opportunity. So long as it doesn't violate our rights as American citizens, go ahead and push for your buyback program. Either way you wont see me there.

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