“People lined up in front of the Doles Community Center with boxes and bags containing firearms an hour before the city opened the doors Saturday to the first gun buyback program in more than eight years,” lohud.com reports. Regular readers know my laundry list of complaints about these “feel good” firearms turn-in events: the no-question-asked policy eliminates the possibility of a criminal investigation, they create a market for stolen firearms (encouraging criminals to steal firearms), they waste taxpayer money (even if it’s just police overtime), they vilify guns, they disarm citizens, they destroy valuable firearms and they accomplish zilch in terms of reducing crime. “Gun buybacks” are nothing more than political theater. Still, the results are interesting and there’s a sad, make that pathetic twist to this tale . . .
People surrendering weapons received the gift cards in exchange: $500 for an assault rifle, $200 for a handgun and $100 for a rifle or shotgun. High-capacity magazines earned a $20 buyback. . . .
Police collected so many guns that they had to stop the event early. By the time it was over in mid-afternoon, they had taken in an assault rifle, 10 assorted rifles and shotguns, and 27 handguns — no questions asked.
“It exceeded all of our expectations,” said Derickson K. Lawrence of Westchester County Crime Stoppers, which sponsored the event. “It’s an overwhelming response.”
The group contributed $8,000 in gift cards, with Mount Vernon Deputy police Commissioner Richard Burke running to an electronics store several hours into the event to purchase $3,600 more gift cards on behalf of the city.
Don’t you just love the image of Commissioner Richard Burke running – running I tell you! – to a local business to spend taxpayer money without prior authorization? Neither do I.
And how do we know that this buyback, like all “buybacks” that preceded it and follow, are anti-gun agitprop? Because we hear the magic words:
A local religious leader turned in five weapons that people had given to him, said Police Commissioner Terrance Raynor.
“If we save just one life by getting these off the street, it’s worth it,” he said.
No. No it’s not.