Opposing Views asks: “Do Gun Buyback Programs Work?”

This week Opposing Views asked the question, “Do Gun Buyback Programs Work?” And they offered this quote from Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan:

“We asked nobody where they obtain it from. We asked nobody’s name.”

This has long been an issue, one issue at least that we have with gun buybacks. Wouldn’t some criminals actually steal guns so they could sell them? We also take issue with the fact that gun buybacks pay very little for guns, especially those of a collectible nature.

Opposing Views then offered this thought from writer Alex Tabarrok, whose op-ed piece sums up another problem:

“Gun buybacks won’t reduce the number of guns in Oakland. In fact, buybacks may increase the number of guns in Oakland. Imagine that gun dealers offered a guarantee with every gun: Whenever this gun gets old and wears down, the dealer will buy back the gun for $250.The dealer’s guarantee makes guns more valuable, so people will buy more guns. But the story is exactly the same when it’s the police offering the guarantee. If buyers know that they can sell their old guns in a buyback, they are more likely to buy new guns. Thus the more common that gun buybacks become, the more likely they are to misfire.”

Another issue we see along the same lines is that you could use a gun in a crime, go to a buyback and get rid of the evidence, and get paid to get rid of the evidence! Thus sell your old crime gun and buy new one!

So maybe gun buybacks do work but not in the way intended unfortunately.

SFGate Says Laws Not Working – Really?

Writer Chip Johnson of The San Francisco Chronicle notes in his column how illegal guns are a serious problem in Oakland California:

“Since the start of the year, Oakland police have confiscated more than 200 illegal guns during routine traffic stops and planned police arrests.”

The problem is that Johnson seems to believe, as does it seems the Oakland police chief, that these “illegal” guns are all coming from gun shows through the “infamous gun show loophole.” He writes:

“Police Chief Anthony Batts said his officers will focus on tracing guns back to the point of origin and working with federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives authorities to identify and prosecute the people illegally transporting them from gun shows outside the state. Interstate transport of such weapons is a federal crime.”

We agree with Johnson that illegal guns are a problem, and he notes in closing that removing violence from the gang culture’s heart is key to winning the battle. We must disagree with the tactic of going after gun shows to solve the problem however. Johnson, nor Batts, even note that Homeland Security lost guns, that police officers lost guns or that police officers sold off confiscated guns. We’ve reported on all of those, but once again the media looks only at gun shows.

Oakland Gun Buy-Backs to prevent 1000 Future Murders?

It’s an amazing headline but that’s exactly the kind of deceptive, inaccurate message organizers of Oakland’s recent gun buy-back program are trying to spin to legitimize spending $250,000.