Cheap Gun Opportunity Potential in Flint, Michigan

 Image from bid.sslfirearms.com, cropped and scaled by Dean Weingarten

On 21 July, 2020, the Flint, Michigan government announced they would conduct a gun "buy back" sometime in the future. It was not clear when the "buy back" would occur, but the implication is it would be sometime before winter. The term "buy back" is an Orwellian phrase, designed to imply that all guns belong to the state, thus the state is "buying them back". That is false. You cannot buy back something you never owned. From mlive.com:

Flint has just 98 sworn officers but will ramp up efforts to fill 14 vacant positions, targeting city residents for the open jobs, and residents will be offered $100 per handgun or $50 per long gun during a no-questions-asked, buy-back program that will be funded by “philanthropic partners.”

Dates and times of the buy-back program will be announced at a later time, Hart said.

A more correct term is gun "turn in", as the guns are being turned in to the police.  On March 4th, 2020, a bill prohibiting government funding of gun "buy backs" passed the Michigan house. The bill was put forward because research had found gun "buy backs" are not effective in reducing crime. From abc12.com: 

State Rep. Annette Glenn proposed the legislation because she believes gun buybacks are not effective in removing guns from criminals or preventing crime.

“There is no research to show buyback programs reduce crime," she said. "However, there is research that shows criminals tend to steer clear of these types of programs and that gun owners use these programs to turn in broken and unwanted guns and use the money received to purchase new guns and more ammunition."

Glenn said her bill won't prevent gun owners from turning over their firearms to local police voluntarily. The legislation also wouldn't prevent nonprofit organizations from using private funding on gun buybacks.

In 2017, on 30 april,  the City Council of Flint authorized the guns that had come into the possession of the Flint Police Department be sold at auction. It was estimated that half a million dollars would be raised.  From flintbeat.com:

“If we don’t do what is on the table then the guns go to the (Michigan State Police) and they may not be as diligent as we are…this is a one time only,” said Poplar. “We are not getting into selling guns online each week. There’s an inventory. The city needs money. The crooks are always going to have guns. They are selling them illegally everyday. You can basically go to any 12-year-old child in the city of Flint and they can tell you where to buy a gun. That’s another story within itself. I’m doing it for the one time.”

The resolution passed with a 6 to 3 vote.

The Flint Police Department recently published a list of firearms in their possession.  Legal owners were given the ability to identify their firearms so they could claim them. Claims had to be submitted before 23 July.

There were some nice firearms on the list. Perhaps the Flint PD will offer these firearms to an auction house. The nearly bankrupt city of Flint can benefit from the sale of these valuable items.

SSL firearms, in Byron, Michigan, is running an on site and  online auction of firearms which ends on 28 July, 2020. The auction would be an easy way for the Flint PD to dispose of the excess firearms and obtain operating cash at the same time. The SSL auction house has about 150 lots in the current auction. Byron, Michigan is only 25 miles from Flint.


©2020 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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