Gun Buy-Back Makes Homes, Streets Safer

[SecularMotion]

On Aug. 28, 2008, when toddler Wyatt Matteau found his father's loaded .40-caliber pistol under a pillow in their Jewett City home and accidentally shot himself in the head, the result was predictable.

The Life Star helicopter flew him from the William W. Backus Hospital in Norwich to our Level I pediatric trauma center in Hartford, but there was nothing we could do. The memory of Wyatt's dead body in pull-ups with a gunshot wound to his head in the trauma bay of the emergency department haunts me as a gun owner, parent and surgeon.

Public health research has clearly established that unsafe storage of guns and ammunition is associated with an increased risk of suicide and unintentional gun injuries. But in communities across this state, there's been a failure to embrace the action needed to take unwanted guns out of circulation to prevent them from killing, injuring or being used in crimes.

Gun violence is different from most other serious pediatric health conditions such as cancer, in that gun injuries can be easily prevented with effective, common-sense measures. Suicide deserves special emphasis because it accounts for about half of all firearm deaths in our state, and it may be more amenable to preventive strategies than homicide.

http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/hc-op-campbell-get-unwanted-guns-off-street-out-of-20121130,0,783713.story

[pipoman]

1. Not a single shred of proof..

"Gun Buy-Back Makes Homes, Streets Safer"

Complete nonsense. Old ladies selling the $40 Iver Johnson .32 in their dead husband's dresser drawer has no impact on anything. There is no statistical evidence that silly minded (not to mention fictitiously named) "gun buy backs" have any effect on anything.

Public health research has clearly established that unsafe storage of guns and ammunition is associated with an increased risk of suicide..

No collaboration of this nonsensical statement (as usual)...why? because there is no credible collaborative evidence..this statement, in addition to being made up, is ridiculous.

Gun violence is different from most other serious pediatric health conditions such as cancer, in that gun injuries can be easily prevented with effective, common-sense measures.

Where are these pediatricians on their outspokenness regarding other far more common risks, "common sense" measures for the 10 or so causes of pediatric accidental deaths which outnumber the risk of accidental shooting? They are mute for the most part.

[GreenStormCloud]

2. You have obviously never been to a so-called gun buy-back.

Very few quality guns get turned in. Mostly they are pieces of junk in lower calibers. Lots of .22s get turned in. Surprisingly, I do support gun buy-backs. They provide an avenue for people who have inherited guns and know nothing about them and don't want to learn to dispose of them, and get a little bit of money for the gun.

[Eleanors38]

3. Wish they had another "buy back" for food. I have a busted .22.nt

[petronius]

6. Are you sure? The Op-Ed writer reports assault rifles and an AK-47

"A buy-back program in New Haven collected 87 guns last year, including several assault rifles. A gun buy-back program offered last August in Queens, N.Y., took 509 firearms — including an AK-47."

I agree with you about supporting them, although I'd object to the use of public resources to do so - even in the narrow arena of violence prevention, there's no reason to suspect that these are close to being the most efficient use of money. But if private organizations want to do them then I'm all for it: it provides a simple avenue for non-criminals to clean out the closet, and puts money in pockets. And maybe a potential mishap is avoided here or there.

I do object to the possibility of a valuable item being bought for a pittance, but that is the responsibility of the owner I suppose: gun dealers aren't generally hard to find, so if someone prefers the simplicity of a local buyback it's up to them. It does suck to think of something interesting and rare going into the chopper, of course...

[GreenStormCloud]

7. I am with you.

The one they had in Dallas was sponsored by Kroger and they got a $50 gift certificate per gun. I spent the day watching it and too late realized that I could have dumped some junk guns too.

I tought it was smart of Kroger. They got some good PR and free advertising. Plus the people who come to the store with the gift cards will likely buy more than $50, and some may even come back to Krogers again.

I did see one .45, a few 9mm, and one TEC-9 turned in. Also a few nice looking hunting rifles. Naturally the media was taking pictures and filming the TEC-9.

With 509 guns turned in there will be a few good ones, but I doubt very many.

[AtheistCrusader]

9. ZERO chance someone turned in an actual assault rifle.

Not a fucking chance, let alone in New York.

[Pacafishmate]

4. Gun Buyback wastes taxpayer money, makes no one safer, destroys precious firearms

[ileus]

5. Why would there ever be an unwanted gun?

[Glaug-Eldare]

8. I keep hearing an ad on the radio

asking people to donate their Kars for kids.