Minneapolis had to end its gun buyback program after quickly going through $25,000 in what critics have charged is a futile gesture. Some 150 firearms were collected before the organizers ran out of Visa gift cards. Some of the weapons were homemade and the sellers boasted of securing windfalls. Putting such subterfuge aside, the question is whether these buy back programs really make a material difference. Recently, a PEW study showed that 44 percent of households now have guns. While these programs offer politicians significant benefits, it is hard to see how they seriously reduce gun violence given the massive body of weapons in the country.
There is an interesting debate over whether gun ownership is actually shrinking despite reports that gun background checks and sales are up.
The two Minneapolis locations collected about 150 firearms Saturday and some sellers said that they sold old guns to buy new ones.
One person constructed a “shotgun” out of a piece of wood, tape and a pipe.
The question is whether such programs truly serve the public interest or political interests.
My God, the Brits were also insane!!
Yes, I know that quote is probably fake.
But this one is real George Washington, proving he was insane, because he says individuals should themselves own firearms, and not rely on military supplies.
“A free people ought not only to be armed but disciplined; to which end a uniform and well digested plan is requisite: And their safety and interest require that they should promote such manufactories, as tend to render them independent on others, for essential, particularly for military supplies.”
—George Washington’s First Annual Message to Congress (January 8, 1790)
KCFleming – we did depend on the Redcoats to arm us prior to the Revolution.
“Gun ownership is evidence of mental illness.”
This man was clearly insane.
http://thefederalistpapers.integratedmarket.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/GW.png
Buy backs destroy evidence. Gun ownership is evidence of mental illness. Mental health treatment for paranoia and feelings of inadequacy might be more useful.
Doglover – you clearly did not grow up in the West.
The war on guns cannot be won. There’s too strong a sentiment against it and the fallacy that others know how to protect us better than we do. The best that can be hoped for is some measure of education resulting in voluntary self-awareness of the safety issues within the gun-owing community.
Focus on curtailing empire and the resulting collective blood on our hands because of the central banking industry, petroleum production, and the MIC.
Gun ownership rises to 44% of all homes http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/surprise-gun-ownership-rises-to-44-of-all-homes/article/2600319
“The question is whether such programs truly serve the public interest or political interests.”
To ask the question is to answer it.
“But those are concentrated in fewer hands than they were in the 1980s, the General Social Survey finds. The 2014 poll finds that 22 percent of Americans own a firearm, down from a high of 31 percent who said so in 1985.”
It’s pretty to think so.
I almost always lie to phone surveys, regardless of the question.
I’d expect many people would not admit to gun ownership to a stranger in a “survey.”
Moreover, it is doubtful that all or most of the firearms below went to the same people (i.e.”concentrated in fewer hands”).
https://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/12/09/us/gun-sales-terrorism-obama-restrictions-1449710314128/gun-sales-terrorism-obama-restrictions-1449710314128-articleLarge-v6.jpg
Homeland Security wants to take over our elections and the Feds want to take over our police. Do you really think I am going to give my gun back.
I haven’t thought this through but it’s early and this story about my hometown pisses me off. I recommend all servants of the people be paid a COLA (cost-of-living-allowance) as their base pay and then receive “bonus” income only if budgets balance. If these bureaucrats want to continue trying to outsmart human nature then let it be at the risk of them losing income rather than the citizen taxpayer funding these schemes.
The reason we have the Second Amendment is because the Framers knew it was important for private citizens to have weapons with which they could compete with the Redcoats with and kill the Redcoats. Now we need competitive weapons in our homes in case the Koch Brothers take over or Queeny comes back. Keep a loaded AK 47 in each closet and be ready when the time comes.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and hoping for a different result. Dems are insane..and stupid.
If someone I didn’t know called me and asked, “Do you have a gun in your home?” my answer would be “No. Hell, no.” This is known as response bias. Journalists seem generally ignorant of its existence and take polls at face value, thus: “Gun ownership in America as a percentage of households is declining.” Empirical evidence (gun sales) suggests the opposite. Ssh, please don’t tell the journalists! It will shake their faith in polls. BTW, response bias may also be operating in presidential election polls.
Reblogged this on Matthews' Blog.
When I first read of gun buyback programs I knew immediately they would have nearly zero effect on violence. In fact, I predicted the guns turned in would be broken Saturday Night Specials that no longer functioned and were worth far less than what the city paid in exchange. Besides, what felon would hand a firearm over to a buyback program when the mere possession of one breaks both federal and state law? He / she would be foolish to consider such a matter.
Funds such as these would be far better spent on anti-crime investigations and patrols targeting only felons suspected of possessing illegal firearms by saturation and/or intelligence gathering.
Liberals should keep their uninformed snowflake selves in their safe spaces. That’s a trigger warning. Law abiding gun owners are not killing their fellow citizens. Terrorists, Gang Members, Felons, Felons in Waiting, and those with Mental Illnesses are killing their fellow citizens. They could not care less about following the laws. We could have one thousand more laws, and they will not follow them. Attend to those who should not have guns at all and leave the rest of us alone. Enforce the laws we have. We don’t need more government or more laws. We need far less of both.
Another example of silly liberals and Democrats wasting money on symbolic foolishness. If they want guns, they need to go to the Hood and start taking them off the gang-bangers. Most of whom are ex-felons and have no business being armed. I wonder why they don’t do that???
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Every gun they take off the street is another victory for gun control advocates, as well as a victory for the corporate sponsors of the NRA whose primary agenda is, after all, selling firearms, and this makes room for more new guns.
works out to $167 each what are street prices in the twin cities these days? Hey kid? i’ll give yiou $20 cash for your Visa Card! Ha ha ha
This is the umpteenth time that empty futile gesture has been tried with the exact same outcome. Some people like beating their heads bloody against the wall? What was the value of the VISA card? Enough to trade for an ounce or….for a better weapon? What fools these mortals be.