Bronx Gun Buyback a Success?

Numerous New York City media outlets are reporting about the “successful” gun buyback in the Bronx, which netted nearly 1,200 firearms… and cost city taxpayers some $184,000 in the process! Of course the NYPD put a good spin on it, according to The New York Daily News, which noted that the police claim to have gotten more than 5,000 “guns off the streets” in recent years:

“We’ll never know, but that’s potentially more than 5,000 lives saved,” Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said during a press conference at Police Headquarters.

Yes, Police Commissioner Kelly, we’ll never know. We’ll never know if one of these guns was even handed in by a criminal. We’ll never know how many criminals now look to steal guns to sell them for $200, with no questions asked. We’ll never know how many people sold guns that were worthless (or at least worth less than $200) to get a quick score from taxpayers. We’ll never know how many valuable firearms were handed in for a mere $200 as well. We’ll never know.