What would you do if you saw an advertisement offering you a gift worth $50 in return for one of your guns? Would you turn one, or several of them in? I ask, because there was a gun buyback in Memphis a few months ago where over 700 guns were reportedly turned in for a $50 gift. The gift came in one of several forms, to include sports tickets, gas and food gift cards.
Hmm…
700 guns were turned in without a single question asked. And the authorities have said that these firearms will never be available to civilians again. But, as with much of the liberal thinking that is out there, there are problems with this thought. First, and perhaps foremost, I can all but guarantee that any of the thugs with guns (of any race, color or creed) didn't turn in their guns. This means that I'd still need my own firearms to protect my family.
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But, I guess it could happen. Maybe someone feels bad about killing that drug dealer so they want to turn their gun in. Which brings me to my next point…
Gun Buyback: Should You Participate?
The source article said that the turned in-firearms were taken with no questions asked. WTF? What if, by some off chance, that weapon was stolen and used to kill someone? Then there is no investigation to be had, because any criminals that did turn in their “unwanted guns” weren't asked any questions when they did so.
Finally, if someone turns in a stolen firearm, which will never again be made available for civilian use, what happens to the original gun owner who filed the stolen gun claim? Will that person be notified that his/her firearm was returned? Clearly, it will never make it back into his/her hands.
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The point is: These sort of things don't work to get crime off the streets because the bad guys aren't first in line to give their guns away.
In fact, the mayor of the city has said that nobody has even bothered to run the numbers to see if the crime rate was reduced the first few times a buyback was conducted. What does that tell you? It tells me that there hasn't been a noticeable decrease in crime, but they don't want to come out and say that. Ya know, cuz that would make him look like the tool he is.
I think most of the time, the people who do turn in their guns are people who don't know anything about firearms to begin with. They are people who had a gun handed down to them. Or, someone who used to hunt and doesn't anymore.
However, there are likely some people—those gun owners who think like us—who have participated. I've heard some guys who turn in their broken and/or worthless guns for $100 gift cards who then use those cards to go and buy another working gun.
Or, some people wait outside of the buyback, and offer “real” money to these “civilians.” I would be inclined to think that anyone with at least half of a brain will take real money in greater quantities than a gift card in lower quantities.
So, again, I pose this question to you: Would you participate in a gun buyback?
How much would it take to get you involved, and at what stakes? I'll start by letting you know what I would do:
No. You can't have my guns, broken or otherwise, for any amount of money. Unless, of course, you want the bullets first. And, it should go without saying that they'd be traveling at speeds starting at 1,000 FPS, and going up from there depending on the firearm.
What would you do? Let us know in the comments.
If you like this post, check out some of the others listed below:
Boston's Buy Back Program
Our Response to the Pope Gun Rant