SC:Eye Witness Account of Sumter Turn In (buyback) with Private Buyers

A few guns turned in at a Phoenix gun Turn in, May, 2013


Several private buyers competed with the police for a small number of turn ins at the Sumter gun turn in event in South Carolina last Saturday.  The events were held at two locations, which diluted the already meager collection.  A total of 35 items were turned in.  Armaborealis from palmettoshootersforum.com
gives us this detailed account:

DreamerOfDreams and I headed down to the Alice drive location. We showed up around 1030-1100 ish and set up across the street with some folding chairs and signs. We were pretty far from the location and only able to really make eye contact with folks turning into one of two entrances. I showed up with my C&R FFL and bound book -- I understand nothing needed for private sales but figured it wouldn't hurt if we got hassled or if a "mom demanding action" started squealing about BACKGROUND CHECKS.

No takers on our cash offers. We did run into a few pro-gun folks, some in cars just shouting support and some who parked to come and talk. I'd say about 80% of the "customers" were old white folks in nice cars, so I don't think the gang banger demographic was showing up.

No hassles from the PD. At one point, two cruisers pulled into the gas station 50 yards down the way and hung out for awhile, and the cops at the turn-in site gave us a funny look for a bit. I suppose one of the "pro gun" folks could have been an undercover but I wouldn't bet on it.

One of the pro-gun folks was a gunsmith & FFL. He apparently showed up right when the buyback opened and turned in a half dozen or so complete POS parts guns. The cops thus ran out of gift cards way early. We packed it in around 1230, and the cops were wrapping it up too.

We checked out the cop's stack of guns collected as of around 1230 and it was unimpressive. There was on Mosin-Nagant M44, a decent-condition colt revolver, a parts gun that would be worth some $$$ to the right buyer, and other than that all POS single shot .22s and such. It looked like there was one sawed off shotgun. I had a brief chat with the cop (a LT). He confirmed that the guns will be destroyed by SLED. I identified myself as a collector and expressed my dismay that historic guns would be destroyed and he actually agreed; he collects Civil War stuff so understood the historic value. I gave him a printout of information (scientific studies, peer reviewed, cited) stating that gun buybacks are useless and left. It looked like the cops weren't thrilled to be there.

I plan on writing a letter to The Item to counter the expected propaganda article. No media showed at Alice drive, but I heard from another pro-2A person that media showed at the other site. All in all not a bad way to spend two hours or so.

Activists like Armaborealis and Dreamerofdreams are performing a public service.

You can help make the turn-in in your area more effective by standing on the curb with your "Cash for Guns" sign, or at a folding table, willing to offer more than the gift card for firearms that are more valuable. It would be best if numerous private parties were available, as more good guns could then be transferred into responsible hands.

This type of activism serves many useful purposes. It stretches the turn-in budget so that more guns can be taken off the street. It helps keep fearful widows from being defrauded of most of the market value of the gun they are turning in. It prevents valuable assets from being destroyed by bureaucratic inflexibility. It is a win-win-win situation.

It also dispels the pernicious message that guns are bad and should be destroyed.


©2013 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.