600 weapons surrendered in gun buy-back in San Francisco
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
(12-15) 17:56 PST Oakland -- Arturo Hurtado of Richmond was still stricken with grief over the mass shooting in Newtown, Conn., that left 20 school children dead when he awoke Saturday morning.
So he decided to get rid of his gun - "that darn thing" as he called it - and purged it from his home.
"I've got kids, man," said Hurtado, who works at Waste Management in Oakland and has children ages 14, 10, 6, and 1. "Kids are curious. Kids don't know any better. I had it locked in a toolbox, so I don't know... I just know it had to go."
Hurtado was among hundreds of Bay Area residents who dropped off their firearms at "buy back" locations in Oakland and San Francisco Saturday, collecting $200 cash for their weapon, no questions asked.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/600-weapons-surrendered-in-gun-buy-back-4121621.php#ixzz2FBAlRltP
This is slightly encouraging. Not going to solve the problem on its own but it's a start.
I think I read about something similar happening in Brooklyn. I hope more police departments around the country do this.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)Tumbulu
(6,292 posts)thanks for posting it.
Archae
(46,340 posts)The guns we should be concerned about, the ones in the hands of gangbangers and other violent criminals, or paranoid nutcases won't be affected.
democrattotheend
(11,605 posts)Several of the people interviewed in San Francisco said they were getting rid of their guns because they didn't want a family member to have access to them. For example, in one case a guy got rid of his gun because of an uncle with dementia. So if people who are not inclined to be violent give up their guns and keep them from falling into the wrong hands, that's a good thing.
Archae
(46,340 posts)No, this program has the right sentiments behind it.
But the devil is in the details.
When people like "The Distinguished Gentleman" Congressman Louie Gohmert from Texas says the whole thing could have been stopped if the Principal had an M4 military assault rifle we never will have sane gun control.
It's always all or nothing.
kestrel91316
(51,666 posts)if the Newtown gunman's mom had turned her guns in. it would have been silly and pointless.
Archae
(46,340 posts)The point is she didn't.
And no doubt wouldn't, because it sounds more and more like she was one of those "I gots to have these guns to per-tect me!" types.
kestrel91316
(51,666 posts)for the type of gun owner negligence she appears to have indulged in. If she had known that the law called for negligent owners to suffer the death penalty if their guns were left unsecured and used to commit mass murder, she might have behaved like any RESPONSIBLE ADULT would have and kept the damned things properly locked up.
Skraxx
(2,981 posts)These programs have great promise if we could properly fund them. And they could be funded with taxes on guns and ammunition plus the registration fees. Couple it with mandatory mental health screenings for anyone who wants to own a firearm and incentives for those who turn in their arms and incentives for those who provide information on people with unlicensed weapons, and we can start making progress.
It won't happen overnight, but we must begin to enact programs to disarm this country. Limit the number and type of firearms people can possess, offer opportunities, grace periods and incentives to turn them in. Anyone after that point is in violation of the law and subject to persecution. And if you know of someone in violation and you turn them in, you get rewarded.
It can be done.
Travis_0004
(5,417 posts)I went to a gun buyback last year. Got rid of an old rusted handgun that didn't work, and got 150.00 for it.
Aristus
(66,438 posts)It's a good start...
kestrel91316
(51,666 posts)shooter's mom to get rid of her guns, either.
We will never know how many lives have been saved by turning in and destroying those 600 guns. But go ahead and live in your fantasy world where normal, squeaky clean white suburban dwellers don't have anything to do with gun violence.
aquart
(69,014 posts)Or maybe it was Delaware. That area. FB friend posted.
Major Nikon
(36,827 posts)My brother had been sent to prison and had left a gun at my mom's house in Texas. She asked me to get rid of it. It was a cheap gun that was worth virtually nothing, but I certainly wasn't going to throw it in the trash. I took it to the police station, left it locked in my trunk and reported it to the cop at the front desk. I got the impression nobody had ever done that before. They treated me like a criminal until they figured out I legitimately wanted to get rid of it. They finally did take it after lengthy questioning. I got kinda soured by the whole thing and decided if anything like that ever happened again I would just throw it off a bridge into a big lake.
Ter
(4,281 posts)n/t
ret5hd
(20,511 posts)They recognized you ARE crazy. Not because you turned in the gun...
just sayin'.
OnlinePoker
(5,725 posts)I don't know how many of those were resales, but I'm sure a crap load were new weapons. These buy-backs look good on the news or in the papers, but they don't do anything to reduce the number of guns in the big scheme of things. In the U.S. right now, there are 90 guns for every 100 people. Do the math and that's over 280 million guns out there.
LiberalFighter
(51,026 posts)With fewer Americans choosing to own firearms, the gun industry understands that it must sell additional firearms to people who are already gun owners. To this end, the NRA has dramatically ratcheted up the promotion of gun confiscation conspiracy theories since the election of Democratic President Barack Obama. What started with the NRA's pledge to spend $15 million to defeat Obama in 2008 and a website called "GunBaNObama" has led to increasingly outlandish and paranoid attacks designed to promote gun sales. As Fox News' Follow the Money segment noted on January 4, "President Obama is the reason" for the upward trend in background checks since 2008, because the NRA has convinced some gun owners that he is "going to go after [their] guns."
The reality, however, is that the guy buying his second assault rifle or third handgun isn't a new gun owner. And sales of used or second-hand guns are not new sales--and no self-respecting industry would treat them as such. By purposely hiding actual data about gun sales in America, the gun lobby is attempting to reinforce its oversize reputation and make the industry look like a more politically potent force than it actually is.
Key points from above:
1) Gun ownership has declined from a high of 29% down to about 20.8%
2) Gun ownership by women has remained flat at about 10%
3) The NRA promotes gun confiscation conspiracy theories for the purpose of promoting gun sales.
4) The NRA and other gun lobby interests refuse to provide reliable gun sales records to hide the data.
Key points from rest of article: (Link at top)
1) Background checks is not performed solely on sales of guns or to just new buyers and does not provide sufficient data to determine new gun ownerships. The article provides the ways background checks are used.
2) Background checks does not provide an indication of annual gun sales for the same reasons.
riverbendviewgal
(4,253 posts)300 million guns.. I read that on a link today on DU
LiberalFighter
(51,026 posts)And the link I had challenges the data supply by the gun industry on gun sales. They don't provide their own data but try to use background checks as an indicator.
riverbendviewgal
(4,253 posts)the 300 million is that amount of guns...maybe owned by 100 million? don't know...just that there are 300 million guns in America.
LiberalFighter
(51,026 posts)Did you read the article or the excerpts. About 21% appear to own guns as of 2010. I wouldn't think that would include youngsters. But if it did that would mean just over 66 million own guns. If just adults it would be about 50 million. When it is based on households the number is about 32%.
Justitia
(9,316 posts)Do they destroy them somehow?
My husband has an old pistol that his father traded for cattle 50 yrs ago.
It has never been fired, we have no ammo & it's locked in a safe.
Frankly, I'd love to just get rid of it, thought about taking it to the police, but always kind of worried about what actually happens to it.
Does anyone know?
OnlinePoker
(5,725 posts)They are rendered unuseable for anything but melting down.
Hulk
(6,699 posts)...and that's what's needed. Now we need to build on it.
ellisonz
(27,711 posts)...to the point that they have stood outside them and tried to buy guns from people turning them in. Scum.
MIDNITERIDER1438
(113 posts)That just goes to show you the weakest link is the private gun sales. STOP THE IRON PIPELINE NOW ! (I live in the NE).
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Big-Response-to-Bay-Area-Gun-Buyback-183653391.html
hack89
(39,171 posts)MIDNITERIDER1438
(113 posts)galadrium
(1,115 posts)The taxpayers are just paying over market prices for cheap guns. $200 cash for a firearm? Sounds like a great way for anyone knowledgeable about gun values to make a ton of money. Turn a rusted non-firing paperweight into cash. Or double your money on a military surplus rifle that hasn't seen sunlight in 60 years. Glad that makes you feel safer, but this is a huge waste of time and money.
tawadi
(2,110 posts)While its still on peoples minds.
Missouri Lad
(8 posts)Don't take the guns to the local police or sheriff office, as they will have a gun sale (auction) later and there you go...some nut will buy the one that were turned in.
ileus
(15,396 posts)slackmaster
(60,567 posts)AnnieBW
(10,449 posts)A lot of people cited the events in Newtown as their reason.
ProgressiveEconomist
(5,818 posts)How much buyback money is used to subsidize upgrades to more LETHAL,
newer firearms? Gun buyback money is completely fungible, unless people who get gun buyback money agree, under penalty of law, they will no longer own firearms for, say, the niext five years.
If they subsequently undergo new background checks for new firearms, I'd advocate that they be prosecuted for attempted felony weapons possession.
Are there any data on the age, condition, and firepower of bought-back guns? At least two there posts in this thread (numbers 6 and 20) mention turning in guns that do not work anymore.
energumen
(76 posts)at 200 per weapon I have several I would turn in. However, it would be a rip off to the taxpayer since they are not worth half that . I recent local program offered 25 dollar gift cards to the dollar store. For these to be effective and affordable they are going to have to hit some type of median ground in what they are offering.