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I know this can be a devisive subject among readers here, but after seeing a reference to this “gun turn in” event, I thought of a few true beater pistols I have. They were given to me over the past few years by friends who thought I might be able to scavenge parts from them or whatever. These are guns I won’t shoot and would not even think of giving away, much less selling for fifty bucks. Come on. A .25 caliber Raven arms? FIE, RG… Nah. I missed The last “buy back” event because of a scheduling conflict. But I was free this weekend. I made it a point to be. Especially after reading the flier . . .

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The event was co-sponsored by Cease Fire Oregon. And the gift cards were not donated by the Kroger-owned Fred Meyer, they were purchased by Cease Fire for this event. And my local Fred Meyer has a decent gun counter with handguns and rifles. And ammo. And magazines. Taking money from the enemy, getting rid of a few questionable gats, and then turning the gift cards into?

Bwahahaha!

So I gathered up my POS jam-o-matics, and headed to Newport City Hall.

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I also took a wad of cash. Just in case someone had something interesting that I could buy my way into. And here I thought Newport, during a decent winter storm, wouldn’t be very busy. Well, I thought wrong. I was greeted by these guys and a couple others who were out of view.

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“Cash for Guns” says the sign on the left. Apparently, I wasn’t the only smart guy. One fella I met, Dave, drove up from Medford. Over 250 miles. He had a stack of gift cards from junk guns and a wad of cash as well. He and a few others had already bought a couple of guns from folks.

It seems Ceasefire under estimated the amount of like-minded individuals. By the time I got there at noon, they had already run out of gift cards. I was immediately bummed. That is until I was informed they would give out IOU’s. Well, I had already driven two hours to get there. Why not?

I walked up to the first table and handed a Newport P.D. officer my grocery sack with the three zip tied pieces of pot metal disguised as pistols. He didn’t take a second look at them as he piled them on a cart that probably had 75-100 guns of all flavors of rust. On the very top was a double barrel shotty that was all of 12 inches long. Hmmmm. The officer checked a box on a piece of paper and wrote the number ‘3’ on it.

I made my way to another table with three smiling older ladies seated behind it. They explained that they had run out of gift cards but would write me an IOU, and that my actual gift cards would arrive in the mail within two weeks. I had made up my mind I was OK with it because if they didn’t come through, they would have to give the guns back or face criminal and/or civil issues. An outfit named Ceasefire is not going to give guns away. Especially with no name attached to the gat. So I wrote my name and mailing address down and she handed me this:

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So I had a nice drive to the coast, spent about $25 in diesel, and in a couple weeks should have $375.00 in gift cards that I will turn into either ammo, or a subcompact carry piece of a more modern and reliable nature. Or maybe a new scope. Hmmmm.

I love it when a plan comes together.

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93 COMMENTS

    • thats exactly my first thought. go buy ten mags, turn them in, then go and buy twenty mags with the proceeds. but then i wondered if i would just be encouraging gun grabbers by participating at all.

      • The difference is “who’s paying?”. If the event is taxpayer funded, hell, no. But if it’s funded by, say, Bloomberg, screw ’em until they bleed. LGS here has 30 rd AR mags for 15, 20-rd (still hi cap?) for 12, for a private party I would buy all of them in stock. I also have been saving a pistol I would never shoot or sell, man, where are tose idiots when I need ’em? Say, the cops have to do this, right? The looney tunes would need an FFL.

        TIO, let us know when it comes through, I still have a tendency to think nobody could be that stupid.

      • It would be amusing to see dozens of gun owners lining up and dumping thousands of $12 mags for the $25 reward. You’d think they’d figure it out, but they aren’t the brightest lot to start.

      • I have a ton of fairly thrashed HK91 mags that I bought for $3 each in bulk a few years back. I’d part with a few of the most beat up ones if I could get back $500 or so.

    • Buy the shittiest ar mags you can find, in bulk, and make double or triple, and go buy more.

      I wonder if you could make junk mags from scrap material and turn them in. Doesn’t sound like they are checking too close what they are taking.
      The crap thing is where is the money really coming from, ceasefire or the city?

      • “Buy the shittiest ar mags you can find, in bulk, and make double or triple, and go buy more.”

        Tapco for some Pmags, done and done.

      • Good theory, but I wouldn’t buy anything I would be jerked to end up owning. They gotta run out of money sometime. If you’d like 10 new 30-rd mags, go buy them and attempt to get there before they run out of money, then go back for 10 more, you could at least hope to end up with 10 free mags!

        • “Good theory, but I wouldn’t buy anything I would be jerked to end up owning. They gotta run out of money sometime.”

          Bloomie has a few billion available…

          MDA should be encouraged to run gun buybacks…

          Sounds like Bloomie should put up or shut up…

    • Sheesh, why won’t that do something like that in my neck of the woods, Id gladly take a box of crappy metal GI mags and replace them with Lancers and still pocket $5.

      • No kidding right. I’ve got at least 10 or 12 old beat up GI 30 round magazine clips I could part with. At 25.00 a pop that’s enough to pay for over half of the fancy new AR I’m getting. Or I could put an ACOG on it.

    • Hey Tom in Oregon!

      It was NOT very ANONYMOUS If they got a name and Address to send out the IOU gift cards. Would have been better (ish) to have a location to pickup the cards with your ticket stub, to remain anonymous , JUST ‘Cause

      NOTHING LIKE BEING ON Another DATABASE!

      Would have been Great, trading cheap for more if could be done anonymously,
      no questions asked…………………………………

  1. I love those buybacks, too. I usually don’t have the time to drive to them, last buyback I attended was five or so years back, off I-205 in Portland.

    Picked up a Frommer STOP and a Russian Makarov, $200 for both. So funny how fast they turn into flea markets for guns.

  2. Brilliant. $25 for a “high-cap magazine”? I don’t have any junk guns but I do have dozens upon dozens of worthless GI-style mags that don’t function well. Maybe I should keep my eyes peeled for an event around here.

    Thanks for the article.

    • Pre panic I bought a few GI mags, during panic I bought magpul followers and new springs. If feed lips are good and magizine is not dented the GI mags are just as good as pmags.

  3. No objection here, Tom. While these events, as a matter of public policy are foolish, that doesn’t mean it’s bad for you personnally. I don’t hold your participation against you.

    $125 for any handgun? $25 for so-called hi cap mag? Those are arbitrage opportunities. You could buy up handguns and magazines elsewhere and turn around and sell them for a profit at this event. Keep doing it until they run out of money.

  4. The vast majority of guns turn in at these so-called “buy-backs” (tell me again how something can be “bought back” that da gubmint never owned in the first place) are rusted, broken, jam-o-matics that have little to no value to anyone anyway.

    It’s already been conclusively proven that “buy-ups” make absolutely zero sense whatsoever, and are literally nothing more than a complete and utter waste of resources.

    • Well, at least these guys called theirs a “turn-in”…not that it makes any difference on the efficacy–or lack thereof–of the whole exercise. Heck, maybe we should encourage these old (and young) hens to do more of this kind of thing. it would keep them busy, make them feel like they were doing something important about “gun violence”, distract them from more actually harmful anti-2A activities, and give some POTG the opportunity to pick up some bargain-priced firearms.

  5. It occurs to me that the next time someone starts going on about how important it is to be able to “trace” guns for crime-fighting purposes, it might be appropriate to ask them why then are the cops so willing to do these “no questions asked” events?

    • Good point, and one that would get an anti stuttering and stumbling in a casual conversation.

      Although, in practice, I expect the cops’ no questions asked policy is actually right up there with the NSA’s no emails read policy.

  6. Years ago when ChiCom SKS`s were going for $60 apiece, one fellow bought several crates full and then turned them in for $100 each. Not necessarily a good thing, but underlines the fact that buybacks are a total fail and a joke.

  7. Shoot, I have the same “sometimes fire”-arm and that WOULD be a good way to rid myself of it.

    For the reasons stated, as I bought it 30 years ago, and really wouldn’t feel right selling it to someone else.

    Not to mention that the .25 ACP round has been in decline for decades now, and the elevated price to feed them…

  8. So you say taking money from the enemy but who is it that funds these buybacks? Sounds like employees paid by our tax dollars were working there? Were these tax funded employees on the clock? Who pays for the gift cards? If any of this comes from your taxes YOU SHOULD BE RAISING HELL! Even if the venue was state owned they are using your money to advance their agenda. Look up reports from the gun buyback. I think one scary headline stated “sawed off shot guns and many assault rifles turned in”. Yeah that’s good PR.

    • The police are already on duty. Taking a guy off the road for 4 hours to make sure the guns were unloaded? No biggie.
      Where did the money come from? Well… Whoever donates to ceasefire. Maybe little mikey? I’ll take his money any day of the week. Taxpayer money? I doubt it, but even if it is, I’ll accept it as either less taxes paid by me or a bit of an early refund.

        • Usually pro-gunners offering cash for guns (more cash than you’d get at the official event for something worthwhile.)

        • It was a group of very pro 2-A guys. I spent more time jaw jacking with them than inside.
          Very polite, cold and wet guys offering to buy guns.

  9. A member of my Pink Pistols chapter used to hit the buybacks regularly, collecting up junk guns for a while, then trading them off. At one point, they were giving actual Visa gift cards instead of supermarket cards, so he could redeem them for actual cash. He essentially “upgraded” his weaponry by turning in some garbage guns he had lying around, and bought a brand-new AR with the proceeds. At another buyback, he got enough grocery cards for us to hold a backyard barbecue for the entire group, with lots of burgers, brats, hotdogs, you name it, and a bunch of tasty beverages, snacks, and desserts. It was wonderful, all paid for by some anti-rights clowns. It was just as if they’d donated a bunch of money to our chapter, and it got rid of some junk that no one was ever going to shoot, anyway.

    He also managed to buy a couple of nice long guns from the people waiting in line who didn’t realize what they had. You once in a while run into the spouse or other family member of a deceased gun owner who doesn’t want to keep the weapons and figures they’ll just turn them in. They don’t know they can take them to a gun shop and sell them for many times what the buyback will give them. So my friend will check what’s in the line and since we can buy and sell long guns without an FFL, he buys them on the spot.

  10. $25 for ‘high capacity magazines’? Do they know that Brownells sells Pmags for $12? And do you think they’d get suspicious if you walked up and dumped a hundred brand new Pmags on the table?

  11. Color me paranoid, but to me it sounds like You achieved three things:
    1. got rid of three pistols that, despite being POS, you might nevertheless desire to have in certain uncertain future. I come from the country that was repeatedly invaded and then disarmed in the name of greater good and public security. The .25 pistols, like those You have turned in, were once abundant down here. Then, during the war they were used by resistance fighters against both nazis and communists. After the war getting caught with one of these could mean the death sentence by military courts of the newly liberated Peoples Republic. Time of abundance never lasts long, as we, Eastern Europeans, were taught the hard way.
    2. in a seemingly insignificant way aid those “save the kids activists” to get their “guns off the streets” numbers bigger, and claim higher donations from various “progressive” billionaires, NGOs and corporations. Remember, that every small ant is essential in building huge anthill.
    3. got Your name on yet another database run by unknown people for unknown purposes.
    All this for 350 dollars.

    • 1) when a guy has 10-15 or more pistols, it’s not a bad idea to sell the $25 pistols that literally don’t function for $125. A gun that you can’t rely on is a gun i don’t want. I’d really rather rely on any other handgun of mine than a bryco-jennings should an actual full-scale conflict come to American soil.

      2) in that same sense, we can use the “they are just giving us money from broken guns so we can buy working guns” thing to prove how stupid some of their ideas are.

      3) “No questions asked.”
      besides, what are they going to do, put me in a database as owning a gun that they subsequently melted down to pot metal?

      • ” A gun that you can’t rely on is a gun i don’t want”

        PARTICULARLY in the event of taking on murderous occupiers like Nazis or KGB.

    • Morokko, in hard times, you should only be arming relatives, and close friends and allies you trust. They all deserve decent guns, not pieces of crap which might get them killed if they fail. If they AREN’T relatives, or close friends and allies you trust, you shouldn’t be arming them at all.

    • morokko –

      You make some good points on the ‘time of abundance’, but there are some dynamics here in the USA.

      There are over 300 MILLION guns in the USA. Probably quite a few more.

      Most gun owners have several guns each. We tend to look after our families and those close to us.

      Those Lorcin – Jennings – Bryco – Raven et all potmetal guns really are utter crap. I would never give anyone I cared about one of those crap guns.

      It makes the Progressives feel like they are ‘Doing Something’.

      This blog runs articles written by the readers, I hope you would consider submitting an article about your experiences in Eastern Europe with totalitarian governments. Too many people here have no idea how good we have it here.

      • And the only reason those POS “Ring of Fire” guns exist is George Jennings taking advantage of the cronyism that the domestic gun industry foisted upon us by the Gun Control Act of 1968 banning cheap imports that were at least better than what Jennings came up with.

  12. It’s funny that you quoted Liam Neeson from A Team at the end of your post and he was the subject of this mornings quote of the day. In fairness I’m a member of the younger generation who didn’t see the original A Team. So you’re probably quoting the first actor to say it.

  13. There was a similar “buyback” near me, where they also offered I believe $30 for “high capacity” mags. A guy I know had a case of old 20 rd G3 mags he bought for less than a dollar a piece years ago. He made an obscene profit off those dopes. Those same mags are still available for $2-3 bucks online at Apex or Numrich, so there’s another idea!

  14. Hrmmm…buy a case of 100 USGI magazines on Gunbroker for ~$1000. Sell them to these clowns for $2500.

    Seems good to me.

    Don’t agree with them, but might as well take advantage of them.

      • It won’t bankrupt them, not with the likes of Bloomberg funding this circus; it will just encourage them to do it more. But that’s fine with me, it increases the odds of me being able to take advantage of it in the future.

  15. Wish there’d been some kind of turn in for money when I got rid of an RG .45 LC (dangerous POS pistol). Kind of like you– I couldn’t have sold that with a clear conscience to anyone.

    Solid strategy – make our opponents spend their resources this way vice buying media time, lobbying lawmakers, making political contributions. Reselling Pmags ensures Magpul makes more money and gets them more resources to design and produce more products. Same with any other new product turned around- you’re helping that manufacturer make more money by selling to folks (with you as the middleman entitled to a reasonable cut) who normally wouldn’t be buying them. Win-win.

  16. Wow Tom I’m a little shocked I met you but didnt. I’m not in your picture but I’m guessing you were driving a red truck. I’m feeling a little star struck now. 🙂 This was not a bad turn in as us “vultures” (as the Ceasefire ladies referred to us) took full advantage of their lack of knowledge on the hi-cap mag turn in. We were part of the reason they ran out of cards so fast. The event did have a three gift card limit but no limit on the number of items one could relenquish. There was at least four SBS turned in while I was there and the score of the day, in my opinion was a .357 Dan Wesson picked up for $300 by a vulture. We were able to speak with a number of curious onlookers and even the Ceasefire ladies about what the 2nd Amendment means to us. The Newport police chief had requested that he be allowed to set aside any historically valuable firearms and Ceasefire agreed so that was a win for us with the rumor mill quoting two as the number saved by that measure.
    This is the second event here in Oregon that I have attended and the turn out was really rather pathetic. Chalk it up to miserable weather or holding the event in a conservative county out of the way for everyone except us vultures. There was talk that the length of time that has passed since the last turn in around here is because Ceasefire has had a hard time getting proceeds together to fund them. So while I love these events for the party atmosphere and bargain opportunities it seems that, at least in Oregon, the gun buyback/turn-in may be going the way of stupid flightless birds.

  17. 25.00 for Mags?…holy crap!… Im in, Thats $1250.00 bucks to you and me! I wonder if the old wood stock off my mosin counts as a ” rifle” they can have that too..

  18. I did this once. A local gun buyback was giving $50 cash for working handguns. I went and bought 10 .25acp Ravens. A local ghetto gun store was selling them for $29 in those days. The dealer made me a deal $250 cash out the door. THen I took those guns to the buyback. A hours work, I made $250.

  19. So go buy a bunch of 30 rnd mags for $20 each…then turn them in for $25 each… That’s a nice profit making scheme…then use the profit to get free mags.

  20. Back when they gave cash at those events I took junk guns, turned them in and took the proceeds to buy my russian sks and other goodies.

    Non working junk for a real battle rifle, all thanks to the grabbers.

    • We already did that in CO.

      Our new background check law (C.R.S. 18-12-112) has no exceptions for such “buy backs”. If the transferor is not an FFL, he must arrange for an FFL to have a background check conducted of the transferee. Both the transferor and the transferee are prohibited from completing the transfer until the CBI grants their approval.

  21. Torn on this topic…

    Not taxpayer funded so I immediately say “why not”.

    My only pushback is that my just showing up gives fodder to the gun control cause (“look how big of a line there was”, “look at how many big scary dangerous guns are no longer on the street”, etc).

    When people stop showing up, they will think this tactic is losing.

    For “them”, it’s as much (or more) about the propaganda as it is about collecting guns off the street.

    • Well, maybe a bit of a propaganda victory, but not really the sort that will likely change any minds out there. Mostly just makes the panty-wetters feel a little better, like they are actually “doing something”. And it does use up time and resources that might otherwise go for more effective anti-gun activities. Taxpayer-funded deals, of course, are another kettle of fish.

      • Even though I have never been to one of these buybacks even if it was tax payer funded the way I see it I pay my taxes so going to these events I am getting my money out of it thus cancelling my “contribution” to it when I did not want it to go there to begin with.

        So to put it simply, I am getting my money back for what I did not want my tax money to go to to begin with.

  22. Have a local P.D. planning one of these for the spring
    “For the Chilluns” not being racist how the original release was worded. They have a strip club & whorehouse ponying up for cards. A few other retirees are planning in setting up a pre-sale booth on the same road, buddy owns the land. Since they can’t afford decent pay or equipment but have been able to get USG surplus MRAPS, Hummers weapons etc… for a 5 person dept. Intercourse them. Tax $ will be used for the cops & each weapon & person will be run & maintained in a database for future reference. SLIPPERY SLOPE. changing my handle & e-mail for this post since it’s read by the chief(sarc) they hired. Not a lurker just don’t need a training accident.

    BTW the MRAP is to be used for Hurricanes to ferry hospital workers as was quoted in the press release. This is one letter to the editor google others & take them too council meetings & the like. We have @ least 1 or 2 other cities in process locally. Sheriff in another county is begging the USG to take it back needs tires & they can’t afford them or buy ammo if they do.
    http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/2015/01/11/4717319/letter-cons-outweigh-pros-in-armored.html#.

  23. Would it be so wrong if I were to buy all of the approximately 3-400+ beaten senceless surplus AR mags at 10$ bucks a pop from my local shop, and make a STUPID profit off these people? 25 a mag pfff Im on my way! Is it wrong to capitalize on these people? They may have good intentions, but not as good as my intentions, which would include more guns, more ammo, and a NRA donation.

  24. Hello criminals! Get rid of your evidence here!

    Hello gun owners! Make profit from your disposable nasty/rusty firearms here!

    Hello gun businessman! Set up shop near our gun buyback to snag a great deal in case someone actually brings something of value.

    Gun buy backs appear like a great deal for everyone – except sometimes the tax payer.

    • I said it earlier if I got “stuff” to turn in I am getting my tax money back for something I did not want to support to begin with.

      I admit that will be hard for me because I don’t buy junk to begin with.

  25. Awesome article. I’ve been waiting for a local program like this to open up nearby so I can get rid of a POS .25 junker I inherited. The Gun Buy Back Programs are perfect for recycling junk guns and taking that money and reinvesting like you say in ammo, or another gun of quality.

  26. $25 for high capacity mags??

    Well – let me just buy as many as I can fit in my car from the local gun shop for $12 each and then sell them at the gun buy back.

    Instant profit!

  27. Yep – they have definitely changed my outlook on gun buybacks.

    In the future i’ll view them with excitement rather than with loathing.

  28. I’ve got an absolutely unsafe old .22 rifle that I can’t ethically sell. I really just need to beat it to scrap with a sledgehammer. But I’d never take it to a gun buyback. They are political events and to participate in one is to endorse its message.

  29. I think I’ll try a piece of pipe with nails curved over the pipe on a block of 2×4. For the firing mechanism, I’ll use a rubber band trigger to strike a piece of junk steel onto the primer. Would they give me a gift card for that?. It would be worth my time to find out.

  30. Good theory, but I will not buy anything that would have shocked me to finish the boss. They will have to walk out of money sometime.”

    Some billion are available near blumi …

    MDA should be encouraged to buy guns …

    Looks like blumy should be closed or closed …

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