Do Gun Buy Back Programs Get “Guns Off the Street?”

That’s the message from The Buffalo News, which reported this weekend that a gun buy back program helped “get 711 guns off the street.” That was the headline, so we can’t (necessarily) blame the staff writer for that bit of reporting. On the positive side the article did include this fact, which we glad to see:

“Some studies show the programs are ineffective at lowering crime rates and getting potentially harmful weapons off the streets.

“In 2000, Lawrence Sherman, a University of Pennsylvania criminology professor, conducted a study for the U. S. Department of Justice and noted there was no direct correlation between gun buyback programs and the reduction of crime.”

Now if only the rest of the media reporting on this trend realized this was the case. Unfortunately other news coverage of this buy back event, including of WKBW failed to note the possible lack of effectiveness of these programs. The local station instead took time to only praise the efforts:

“A gun buyback program is being hailed a success by city officials but some residents are troubled by the recent spike in violence, including two shootings in Buffalo in the last 24 hours.”

Likewise WIVB also was fairly one sided with it’s coverage:

“The crime curbing effort has collected over 1,600 guns over the past 2 years and city leaders said this is another successful year.”

And later in the article pointed out:

“Some say that the Gun Buyback Program couldn’t come at a better time.”