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Law-Abiding Citizens: Make the World Safer by Turning in Your Guns!
There is a movement afoot to start voluntary programs in which law-abiding citizens can turn their guns into the police (and sometimes receive some compensation for them). I say law-abiding citizens, because obviously criminals are unlikely to walk into a police station and voluntarily disarm themselves, so criminals will be unaffected by these programs.
I find this concerning for two reasons. First, I suspect that the goal is that, over time, these programs will become, um, less voluntary. (I’m sure progressives would avoid scary words like mandatory.) The other reason these programs concern me is that there apparently are people out there who think this might help improve public safety.
Anyone who actually believes that is, best case scenario, a fool; or worst-case scenario, a threat to society by making us more vulnerable to real threats. There are, apparently, a significant number of people who believe things like this. Lord help us.
This cartoon sums it up pretty well:
I stole Michael Moore’s fork to stop obesity.
One of the co-pastors at the church we attend has spoken favorably of people disabling their own weapons. When it is pointed out to him that this might actually make the entire community less safe, he is completely baffled. Clearly he has not thought this through.
I’m not sure there’s anything new here.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/01/12/gun-buybacks-popular-but-ineffective/1829165/
Gun “buy-backs,” in which cities or anti-gun groups pay for cheap (often non-functional) weapons that wouldn’t have been used in crime anyway, have been around for a while. They’ve only ever been useful as virtue-signaling, and as a way for gun owners to make money by selling worthless guns. Also:
http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2014/12/22/5-homemade-shotguns-handed-100-gun-give-back/
We had this a while back in our area. They were offing $50 / $100 depending on the gun. There was an issue in that some enterprising individuals were standing on the way that offered more money per gun which many people were taking them up on. The police tried to run them off but it seems there were legal issues in that they were not breaking any laws.
Saw this cartoon on FB yesterday – posted by a friend defending the 2nd Amendment. To my dismay, there were comments posted almost instantly defending the idea of turning in one’s guns and blasting the cartoon as illogical.
There are soooo very many foolish people in this country.
Don’t be so sure. Most of these turn-in or buy-back programs are “no questions asked”. Because the weapons are likely to be destroyed (conservatives would resell them), it’s a great way to get rid of a gun involved in a crime.
OTOH, if the guy turning in the weapon had tattoos all over his face – inculding tears – he might be held for questioning . . .
During a government gun buy-up program here a few years ago, one of the local radio personalities pointed out frequently on-air that if the gun were functional, gun stores were paying more than the government was. The government didn’t like him either.
In Minnesota they made what were technically shotguns and got money for them. Idiots.
That is remarkable.
Well, I wish it were remarkable. I guess I’m not surprised.
* sigh *
Can you take mine, too?
Hey!!! I resemble that remark!!
That is a great story!
I have every reason to believe and no reason to disbelieve that these are the same people that think the data that they “share” on Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc is “their” data and that “their” data is “private.” Makes me think that before the next Annual Darwin Awards, there should be a major “filtering” of the gene pool.
You’re law-abiding. Turn it in yourself.
This shows clearly how important it is to put up signs in places that are gun free. How many shootings have occurred because of a criminal not knowing where to and where not to brandish a gun?
Back when I was living in the Bay Area, a few times students at my basic rifle classes brought in old firearms from ‘the attic’. Some were junk, a few were worth some effort (once had a mint 1920s Iver Johnson 22LR come in that was a tack driver). I told them to save the junk ones to take to the next buy-back, and get cash to buy ammo for the others.
I threw away my fire extinguishers to keep my house from burning….
I don’t see how that would do a lick of good. Does anyone here seriously think Moore too refined to eat with his hands?
I don’t know about illogical, but it’s not the clearest analogy. Canceling your credit cards could stop fraud, in that if you don’t have a card, no one can steal your number and make fraudulent charges against your account.
This. The cartoon should have said this instead.
While I agree that this megawatt virtue signalling will have no effect, and that it is also weapons-grade stupidity, I don’t really have a problem with someone deciding that he is personally better off without a gun (I can think of legit reasons for a person to come to such a conclusion) and that society might be marginally better off without said gun in circulation.
I object to gun buy-back programs in general, but not to the destruction of one’s own weapon.
I can agree with the first part, but the second is a problem. As Marko Kloos pointed out, firearms enhance our society, by allowing the weak to defend against a stronger enemy. Destroying a functional gun is a terrible idea, when one has the option of selling it to a licensed dealer.
That being said, if someone wants to destroy their own gun, it’s their property. I just don’t want to pay police to do it for them.
In the same lockbox as “their” Social Security account.
Who knows everything? Austrian economists.