The “news report” above starts off by proclaiming that “The NRA says gun buybacks programs are feel-good publicity stunts; they don’t do much.” Although I don’t remember the NRA saying any such thing, the statement is both true and a signal that the rest of the report will attempt to disprove the futility of San Jose’s feel-good publicity stunt. Clocking nbcbayarea.com‘s “exclusive look” at the SJPD’s secret stash, we are not impressed with the firearms culled from the 445 collected at a cost of $90k (plus police overtime and pension contributions). Handguns! A [single] sawed-off shotgun! Seven “assault rifles”! “These are not hunting firearms,” Deputy DA Gogo opines, haltingly. “These are firearms designed to . . .
inflict . . . uh . . . serious damage.”
Gogo defends the program against naysayers by pointing out that some of the guns purchased by buybackers (elsewhere) were found to be stolen. Stolen! Some of them! Stolen! But he somehow fails to mention that the “no questions” asked policy in place during gun buybacks prevents the cops from tracing the guns and arresting the thieves.
“Gogo says the buyback means theres no longer a chance that an officer or an innocent bystander will have to look down the barrel of one of these guns.” You might say that innocent bystanders in CA’s third most populous city are far more likely to look down the barrel of a gun held by the San Jose police than these unwanted broken-ass guns, but I couldn’t possibly comment. Except to say this: gun buyback programs are feel-good publicity stunts.