New London Connecticut will be giving Visa gift cards for firearms in March. $100 cards will be given for handguns, $75 for rifles and shotguns, and $150 for "assault-style" firearms.
The program will be conducted on the weekends of March 2nd and 3rd and 9th and 10th. The guns are to be turned in at the New London Truman Street police station. No hours have been given.
These programs are widely advertised with the propaganda term "buy back". The term is a lie, because the guns were never owned by the people who are now buying the guns in order to destroy them.
These programs are designed for one major function: to make political theater that delegitimizes armed citizens, and the ownership of guns.
In a practical sense, they defraud ignorant gun owners of valuable property, waste valuable police resources, destroy valuable assets, and increase the demand for new guns by reducing the supply of used guns.
In Connecticut, which has some of the worst gun laws in the country, ordinary citizens cannot legally buy or sell handguns without government permission. Firearms that have been defined by Connecticut law to be "assault weapons" are not allowed to be possessed, bought, or sold.
Connecticut still has a shred of freedom, because rifles and shotguns that are not defined by law as "assault weapons" may be bought and sold to and from ordinary citizens, if they are not prohibited from owning guns, and if they reside in Connecticut. Antique firearms, and replicas of firearms made before 1898 do not require permits or licenses if they do not fire commonly available fixed ammunition.
This opens an opportunity for the brave activist who wishes to expose the insanity of these turn in events. Activists across the nation have stood in public spaces at these events, offering cash for firearms worth more than the people at the turn in are offering. At some events police have violated the activists rights by harassing them in order to stop them from their protest and legal purchases.
I would rate the Connecticut event as high risk for police misconduct, because it is scheduled at a police station, police drove off an activist at a recent event, and Connecticut has an active anti-freedom government.
I would attend the event if I lived in Connecticut, but I would want to have a friend or fellow activist with me who could record police interactions so that there would be no dispute about what was said.
Not surprisingly, Connecticut is also one of twelve states that require all parties consent to record private conversations. A conversation with a police officer in a public place is not ordinarily considered a private conversation, but police in states that require "all party" consent have arrested people for recording their public actions. The U.S. First Circuit court of appeals has ruled that recording police in public places is a First Amendment right, but Connecticut falls under the Second Circuit.
In numerous other states, activists have obtained some nice firearms at bargain prices while exposing the ridiculous assumptions of the "buy back" gun turn in events.
Here are some links to recent turn in events where private citizens scored bargains.
activist harassment in Connecticut
Recording Police First Amendment Right Ruling Link
Dean Weingarten
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