Texas Church Tries Guns for Roses on Valentines

[alwynsw]

Would you surrender a firearm of any sort for $50.00? I don't believe I have any that are worth so little.

The story doesn't say what the church is planning to do with any firearms they receive. I'm guessing they'll collect just enough to make a paperweight to hold down an imaginary $50.00 bill in the offering plate.

I suppose I could dig through the safes and find an old, non-firing, worthless relic for such a program. There must be one in there somewhere. The $50.00 would buy me 500 white box rounds of 9mm to plink with.

<snip>
The First Presbyterian Church in Dallas is sponsoring a program for people to turn in their guns to mark the Valentine's celebration of love. The sponsors will give $50 for each gun, and would be glad if the cash was used to purchase candy or flowers for Valentine's Day.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=583&e=1&u=/nm/20040214/od_nm/guns_dc

[RoeBear]

1. I think fifty dollar...

...food baskets for the poor would be a better idea, but it's their money.

[-..__...]

2. Gun buy backs.

I wonder what would happen if some enterprising individual offered their own gun buy back program? Say... run an ad a week or two before any police sponsored one and offer a few bucks more than the police (or church), are offering. The person might get lucky and score that elusive
mint condition Luger carbine or M1-Garand that's been stored in Grannys attic ever since her hubby died. Even some of the more common, inoperable, beat-to-shit firearms (police specials, M-1 carbines, etc),
are worth more than $50.00. If the firearm can't be fixed or restored, the parts alone might be worth $50.00...One mans junk is another mans treasure.

Once the wheat is seperated from the chaff, take the obvious junk (Ravens, Lorcins, Brycos, etc), and re-sell them at the police buy back program.

[alwynsw]

3. I may just do that

It's a brilliant idea!

[-..__...]

4. And think of the community service you'll be providing.

Keeping dozens of guns out of circulation and out of the hands of irresponsible gang-bangers and grannies. Then there's the cost savings to financially strapped communities and PDs as you're absorbing the burden of purchasing some of the firearms that they would have had to pay for.

Ohhhh, and I have dibs on the Luger carbine. :)

[jhfenton]

5. When I read about these gun "buy backs"...

I often consider camping outside and making offers on people's guns. I talked to some of my police friends, who said they could run the SN's of the purchased guns to make sure none were stolen. I'd ask for ID from the sellers, so I wouldn't expect too many. Even if I lost one or two out of my buys, I'd probably still come out way ahead.

For better or worse, though, I haven't seen any groups in this area stupid enough to hold any gun buys. And it's not something you could do outside your home state.

[Hrumph]

6. Um... no

But I could sure go out to the garage and make (what looks like) a zip gun in about 15 minutes and turn that in. That'd be worth 50 bucks.