In Tacoma, Washington, officials are considering the idea of a gun drop box where people can turn in guns for destruction without any interaction with police. The theory is that there are people in poor, crime ridden neighborhoods who want to get rid of a gun, but do not want interaction with police.
The working theory is that the box would be in a place without surveillance, and the guns dropped off would be checked out by police, then destroyed. From mynorthwest.com:
The city is investigating how to successfully operate the program. It is trying to find locations away from police intervention, to encourage people wary of law enforcement to turn the guns in. At the same time, it wants to place them in areas that won't cause a disturbance.The comments at the site are numerous and biting. The first one, by Xplanes, sums up much of the latter 167 comments:
"It's definitely something that is controlled access and one way," Cordeiro said. "You can put something in, but you can't take something out.
This has got to be the dumbest gun related idea in the history of mankind. Do these people live and think in a vacuum? Boxes of guns somewhere out of the reach of police intervention. And they are worried about me handing my best friend my gun for his camping trip without a background check. I would call them Imbeciles, but that would be an insult to stupid people.My observation is that if someone wants to have a gun destroyed without police being involved, Tacoma has many miles of shoreline on Puget Sound. Salt water immersion will destroy most guns rather rapidly, and no one has to worry about whether or not the government was lying about that "no surveillance" thing.
The idea that there are multitudes of poor youth in the hood, desperate to get rid of valuable items anonymously, that they could easily sell for cash to their local gang member or drug dealer... goes beyond Pollyannish.
In this video, a Tacoma official makes the tired old claim that if it just takes one gun "off the street" that it will all be worth it. There are so many failures in logic in that statement that it deserves more attention. It concentrates much of what is wrong with disarmist attitudes in one short sentence.
1. The false assumption is that guns are only used for evil, when in fact, they are often used for good purposes.
2. The assumption that the boxes benefits will outweigh their costs. The benefits, of necessity, will be impossible to measure. Some costs, such as creating the boxes and maintaining them will be easily measured; others, such as crimes committed because a self defense gun was not available, will be as hard to measure as the benefits.
3. The false assumption that guns have no economic value.
4. The willful ignorance of multiple other ways to dispose of firearms.
5. The placement of responsibility with inanimate objects instead of with people.
I doubt the gun disposal box idea will be implemented. It is so absurd and unrelated to reality as to verge on insanity.
When politicians are free to spend other people's money, logic, rationality and cost effectiveness are not important considerations.
©2015 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Link to Gun Watch
These boxes will be a magnet for criminals in every way.
ReplyDeleteAs other commenters have noted, regardless of surveillance, they could just be stolen.
What happens when 'little Johnny' finds his dad's gun, and drops is in there? Is they any process where dad could ever get it back? Doubtful.
Most importantly, guns used in armed robberies or shootings could just be wiped clean, and thrown in there. Easy come, easy go! Even if PD runs serial #'s or ballistics, how are they gonna pin the tail on the donkey?
Government NEVER amazes me as to the depths of lunacy to which it will descend.
Cleveland just had another buy last weekend, but they kept it quiet, nothinb on the news that I watched and I didn't see it in the Plain Dealer, only heard about it after it happened, in the news.
ReplyDeleteGuess they didn't want any buyer's showing up.
It just goes to show us how gun grabbers work. If they can not make their point by lying about everything they have to prove their stupidity by their actions. People steal ATMs and they think this box is secure? from the looks of it a saws all would open it in seconds. I recommend a spinal tap to see if they have any brain fluid.
ReplyDeleteWill this work? And will it be effective to gun owners?
ReplyDeletePiercing Shop
Great. If someone ever makes a feature length comedy film about "Gun Control in 5 Easy Steps (or Was that banging sound your brain hitting your forehead?)" then this idea definitely deserves some screen time. No cops around. Untraceable guns being deposited. Gang members, MAG, Bloomberg's guards, the local Cub Scout den .. a whole succession of groups first stealing the original box and replacing it with one that THEY have the keys to and then each group that follows stealing the replacement box of the group ahead of them.
ReplyDeleteI love it. Nick Nolte could tunnel under the box, torch out its bottom and then keep ALL the firearms, no matter whose box was parked over HIS hole.