A gun turn in (buy back) event was held in San Jose, California, on the 6th of June, 2015. The number of firearms turned in was meager for such a large population center, with one fourth turned in by one person. There are no photographs of the firearms turned in available yet, but it is highly probable that the 47 firearms turned in by one person were the collection of a family member who died. That is a common source of guns turned in at these events. From mercurynews.com :
SAN JOSE -- A no-questions-asked guns buyback run by the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office has netted nearly 200 weapons, including 47 from one person.While the experts agree that gun turn in events do not reduce crime or violence with guns, they are seen to be useful as political propaganda, sending the clear message that "Guns are bad and should be turned in to police."
The real effect of gun turn in events is to increase the demand for new guns by reducing the supply of old guns. Any economist can verify that micro-economic effect. It is unlikely that the person who turned in 47 guns was reimbursed for them all. In the San Jose event, the police reserved the right to *not* pay for guns as they chose.
The picture shows some of the long guns turned in at a Phoenix event in Arizona. Arizona and several other states have passed laws requiring these valuable assets be sold instead of destroyed.
I wonder what 47 guns were were turned in by one individual. We could speculate all day long about pre-war Colt and Smith & Wesson revolvers, WWII trophy Lugers and WWI Webleys, classic Browning Auto-5 hunting shotguns and Remington pump .22 rifles...
I have seen them all at gun turn in events, usually turned in by ignorant widows who did not know the value of what they were disposing of, getting pennies on the dollar for valuable artifacts, in order to make political theater.
©2015 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included. Link to Gun Watch
I would have been happy to be there with a truck load of cash to buy all the guns the police refused to buy. I bought a shot gun once for 10 dollars a week later it looked like new. I refinished the stock and re blued the works.
ReplyDeleteThey reserve the right not to pay, but just try taking it back and walking away.
ReplyDeleteIf it is my weapon just stand back and watch me hit the courts for a bundle of money for 4th amendment civil rights violation. They can not take anything from you without proper compensation. There is no right to reserve not to pay.
ReplyDelete