Previous Post
Next Post

Hartford Buyback Program To Turn Guns Into Gardening Tools the headline at courant.com proclaims. Swords into plowshares, geddit? Aside from that marketing ploy, there’s nothing new — or valuable — about Hartford, Connecticut’s “buy back” program. It’s still a case of taxpayer money being squandered on “feel good” political theater. But check this out . . .

Guns turned in can be exchanged for gift cards, ranging in value from $450 for an assault rifle to $100 for a shotgun.

We’ve said it before, we’ll say it again: offering money for firearms with no questions asked incentivizes thieves to steal guns. The greater the “reward” for tendered guns, the higher the likelihood that the cash will inspire bad guys to break into people’s homes to remove valuable guns.

In other words, the $450 bounty for “assault rifles” creates crime, rather than eliminates it.

In other other words, the “long-term partnership between Mothers United, Hartford police, and the Newtown Action Alliance” has created a criminal fencing operation for stolen property.

Connecticut General Statutes 53a-119 – Larceny states that . . .

A person is guilty of larceny by receiving stolen property if he receives, retains, or disposes of stolen property knowing that it has probably been stolen or believing that it has probably been stolen, unless the property is received, retained or disposed of with purpose to restore it to the owner.

What are the odds that any of the surrendered “assault rifles” will be stolen? Who knows? Not the police. Of course, they could run a trace on the guns, right? But they don’t. Because guns.

Bottom line: receiving stolen goods isn’t larceny if the police and anti-gunners do it. In case you didn’t know.

Previous Post
Next Post

44 COMMENTS

  1. Of course, this is the same city that is about to declare itself bankrupt. So clearly they have nothing else to focus on.

  2. Is that $450 for every patrol rifle I find in an unlocked vehicle and bring to the event?
    No questions asked, you don’t care if the patrol rifles belong to the city of Hartford?
    Hmmm…

    • Alternately, what constitutes an assault rifle?
      Does a $40 AR receiver count?
      What about a $2 cast plastic receiver?

      • Mossberg 715T (tactical, ar style) fits the bill of an assault rifle, costs $250 and iv’e seen them on sale for around $130-150. Profit on gun no one cares about!

      • Mark Serbu. This man is awesome for creating his “Buy-Back-Special”. I want to make 100 of them and clean out the next buy back in Chicago.

    • “Gun Buyback created crimewave against patrol cars. News at 11.”

      You’re onto something here.

  3. So, can I get $450 for my stripped lower? I mean that is the ‘assaulty’ part according to the ATF.

    • Sorry, Charlie. That lower is just the official “firearm” part. It doesn’t become an assault weapon until you attach a pistol grip and a shoulder thing that goes up.

      • So a cast plastic lower with throwaway A2 grips and carbine stock. That’s 2 evil features in a federally defined firearm for, say $50?

        I’d be making more tax free money doing that part-time than I do at my full-time job.

      • Not true as it is still a firearm capable of having the features that are no bueno in CT. It also is an assault weapon part which is covered yet oft over looked and afaik no action has been taken on parts at this time. Because of this if it ain’t preban you ain’t getting it as a normal person.

  4. So they are checking to see if they are stolen right? And returning them to their rightful owners?? If they were reported stolen and the owner gave LE the serial numbers, they are going to return the firearm to their rightful owners – right???? Are the owners getting the $450 that the thief got for their property? Is the government actually paying thieves to rob the populace of their firearms for the purpose of leftist ideology??

    • Maybe the legitimate owner should sue… except they have no way of finding out it’s been found, because no one is checking.

      Reminds me of the government’s answer to people demanding to know if they’re on a secret watchlist. “Sorry, that’s secret, and you can’t take us to court because you might not be on it and therefore can’t prove standing.”

  5. Hell, forget stolen. I can BUY myself some of those sweet Hi Point Carbines for close to $300 each and make over a bill a pop turning them back in. Nothing illegal about it and no chance getting caught or shot lifting. Good for Hi Point, good for me, and the city–Bless their little hearts– thinks it’s doing something good too.

    Only people who really get screwed over are 1, the taxpayers who voted in such foolishness and now have to pay the bill through taxes and 2, anyone who’s the target of theft. But the theft bit wouldn’t be on me, it’d be on… once again the taxpayers of that city for voting in such stupidity.

    • I’m not gonna lie. If this is an ongoing thing, I’m really tempted to pick up a Hi Point Carbine a month until Spring, then dump a huge chunk of savings into more and take a road trip with friends. Could be a whole paid vacation in there. No ID, No residency requirements, no questions asked. Just give them your $300 Hi Points ARs and walk away with $450 per gun and then go out for a nice steak dinner.

        • Pistol grip, folding or telescoping butt stock, muzzle brake, barrel shroud. Sounds like the textbook definition of an assault rifle to me. On top of which, do you think the cops asking no questions are going to look closely at brand name and give you trouble? Used starting at $200, you could keep the optics, magazines, slings, cases, whatever extras you’d like and have one tricked out, sweet (ish, it’s still a high point) gun you keep for yourself.

          These guys aren’t going to test fire fuckall either. Used AR-15s run around $400, broken ones for less. Once more, strip it of whatever extras it has that you want and make some monies.

      • Of course, the nearest state you can buy those in is Pennsylvania. Then you have to drive across NY, NJ and/or Massachusetts, and part of CT to get to the buy-back. Be sure not speed or have an accident along the way. The cops at the buy-back might be all “no questions asked” (though yeah, if you roll in with a gross of carbines, there will be questions) but all the cops along your route might have some questions.

        • I picture myself like a beardless, but still fat Santa with a burlap bag holding some 20 rifles over my shoulder

  6. I don’t think they can afford the OT for the cops. Hartford just got rated junk yesterday.
    I hate few things in this world. Connecticut, and all who reside within, is at the top of that short list.

    • The rate at which leftists who run anti-gun paradise locations are running out of OPM gives one hope that their reign is coming to an end.

      • Maybe, just maybe, if the voters are paying attention, they’ll vote for a change in their goverment.

        • “Maybe, just maybe, if the voters are paying attention, they’ll vote for a change in their goverment.”

          They’ll vote straight Socialist-Marxist before anyone with an ‘R’ next to their name…

        • I think the Ruling Leftists have already used their preferred policies to turn many former citizens into teat-sucking dependents, used academia to turn the children of the wealthy into self-hating chic radicals, and then brought in lots of new dependent “citizens” – that combo is proving both lethal and permanent in many states.

    • Hate everybody? LOL, your State is next on their list bro, and when your time comes, you wont do chit about it.

    • I’m tickled pink by the honor of making that short list of yours.

      Thanks from all of us fighting the good fight in CT, we appreciate your love and support.

      A hearty and warm get f’d back to you to good sir!

  7. Note to self: Commit murder using gun, sell gun at buyback with “no questions asked,” use money to buy new gun. Makes “disposing of the evidence” so much easier, and more profitable!

  8. I’m pretty sure that most everybody involved in these things knows they are total B.S.

    Yet, virtually no one in local government will stand up and declare that the Emperor has no clothes. Ultimately, I blame the voters.
    They’re the ones who put these people in office and they’re the ones who credulously lap this pap up.

  9. “… receiving stolen goods isn’t larceny if the police and anti-gunners do it.”

    This demonstrates unequivocally that we are now a nation of men, not a nation of laws. Saying it another way, we are now a nation where laws do not apply to the ruling class nor their enforcers.

  10. I wonder if Officer Doughnut knows what he has in his hands?

    That StGw 44 must be worth in the thousands, possible tens of thousands.

    And I bet it felt “good” to have a historical relic put through the crusher. For the children of course.

  11. I’m a little skeptical about this thesis – if it actually works, a stolen gun is worth a heck of a lot more (and in cash, and not a gift card) than what they’re offering in the buyback. The people most likely to bring guns in law-abiding people who either found or inherited guns which were never likely to be used in a crime in the first place.

    If I were devious enough, I’d instead start manufacturing my own zip guns out of parts from home depot – they don’t actually have to work safely, just be plausible enough to earn a gift card.

  12. I built an AR last year (well before the election) for $561.17. That includes all the tools I needed (and some I didn’t) and three mags. I could have done it for a little cheaper then. I bet I could do it a lot cheaper know. If I lived near there, I’d look into taking advantage of this. Making AR’s, buying used, buying (used and new) HiPoints. Whatever it takes, I’m sure there is a legitimate way to make a bunch of money off of these buy backs.

  13. “Gift Cards” is the key phrase here. In Cedar Rapids, a city close to where I live, the PD handed out $100 Hy-Vee gift cards at their gun buy-back. Hy-Vee is a local chain of grocery stores, so distributing gift cards to their stores is like handing out a very local currency. No problem for local residents looking to trade a rusty BB gun into beef brisket and frozen pizzas, but not necessarily a “quit-my-day-job-it’s-a-gold-rush” for non-residents.

  14. They can turn them into gardening tools or stick them up their ass. No one cares what wimpy Connecticut does with guns.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here