Darkside of “Cash for Guns” Programs

At a recent so-called “cash for guns” buyback event in California a man approached people and bought guns before they had a chance to turn them in. How often does this happen? Probably more often than police, or the mainstream media like to report. The Fresno Bee reported this interesting bit:

“(Fresno Police Chief Jerry) Dyer said some people who dropped off guns during Saturday’s event declined to accept the gift cards. But one enterprising person was reported running his own ‘cash for guns’ effort, approaching people waiting in line. He got away before police could catch him.”

While this might not sound so troubling, and the paper barely mentions it, this is a huge problem and one that could lead to many guns being resold to criminals. In fact, this could have just the opposite effect of the intended buyback. The idea of these events is to get guns off the street, but never has the media reported any statistics to indicate whether these guns were actually “on the street” to begin with – and in fact, many were likely in closets, under beds and safely locked away.

Given the economic hardships many are facing, legally owned firearms are likely be turned in so people can buy food, pay the rent and go on living. But if even one criminal bought one safely owned gun, and in turn sold it to a criminal, then the result was to put a gun “on the street.” Too bad the mainstream media never sees it that way.

The paper also only touches on some of the firearms recovered, which included:

“…seven assault rifles, five sawed-off shotguns and two machine guns.”

How many of these began “legally?” Again, this disputes the notion that all illegally owned guns somehow began legally. It is hard to believe that the sawed-off shotguns or machine guns were once legally sold.