Gun buyback programs may not be the worst idea in the history of gun control—taking firearms away from freed slaves tops that list—but they’re right up there. Gun buybacks waste taxpayer money, perpetuate an anti-gun culture, destroy criminal evidence and do sweet FA about reducing crime. In fact, by creating a black market for stolen guns, gun buybacks encourage people to commit crime. On that last point, evanstonnow.com reports an Illinois police chief is set to take buyback stupidity to a whole new level . . .
“Evanston Police Chief Richard Eddington [above] told residents at a 2nd Ward meeting Thursday night that a planned gun buyback program will offer ‘market price’ for some high-end firearms.
With $17,000 raised from donations to fund the program [not including police officer’s time], Eddington said, it will be able to offer full price for guns like AK47s, “those guns that are exceptionally dangerous.”
I’d say something about the exceptional danger posed by PC po-po and their political paymasters and leave it there but it gets better/worse.
Gun buyback programs in Chicago and elsewhere have been criticized for offering a flat $100 for any working weapon turned in, with critics saying that’s not enough to get people to turn in guns that are actually likely to be used in crimes.
“One of the most difficult things is to get criminals to turn in their guns,” Eddington said. “It’s like offering $100 to a plumber to turn in his tools — it ain’t gonna happen.”
He said the city is only interested in buying Evanston guns, “not junk from Kankakee.” To that end, people turning in weapons will have to show some proof that they live in Evanston — which could be a utility bill or something similar.
“But we just want the gun,” the chief said. He said police won’t check whether the person turning in the weapon has a firearm owners identification card, making it legal to posess the weapon.
Let’s see if I’ve got this right: Eddington figures that paying market prices to local residents for guns will get them to turn in firearms that would have otherwise been used in a crime. Or not.
But he said he knows that a lot of the weapons likely to be collected will be ones unlikely to ever have been used in a crime — “something that’s been in Uncle Ben’s drawer forever, or a shotgun that’s been in the closet, even though the owner hasn’t been hunting in 15 years,” Eddington said.
But even getting those weapons should cut down on accidental shootings, the chief added.
So SOME of the guns the cops buy WILL be ones that MIGHT have been used for crimes? What if it turns out they’re stolen? Will they be returned? And what if it turns out they were stolen and given to a local resident to sell to the police? What then Einstein?