There will be a gun turn-in event on Saturday, 12 December, 2015 in Clearwater, Florida. Clearwater is in Pinellas County. While these events are commonly labelled with the propaganda term “buyback,” the guns were never owned by the people attempting to buy them. The event will be held at the Joe DiMaggio Sports Complex parking lot, 2450 Drew St. and run from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. From suncoastnews.com:

This will be the Clearwater Police Department’s first buyback event since June 2011, when it collected 189 guns. Hall said officers plan to buy about $10,000 worth of gift cards to hand out at the event.

Police will offer $50 or $100 Wal-Mart gift cards for the guns, depending on type of the firearm. Private buyers have little to fear about buying stolen firearms at these events. Florida even has a website where firearms purchasers can check to see if a firearm is listed as stolen in the State.

Some police departments are hostile to private buyers; others are friendly. It’s best to do local research before arriving to offer to buy firearms. The choice of a public venue like the Joe DimMaggio Sports Complex means that the police will have wide discretion about where private buyers can set up, where parking is allowed, and what access there will be to the parking lot.  Some private buyers have been able to overcome these obstacles and achieve considerable success.

Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office offers free Concealed Carry courses to obtain the Florida concealed carry permit, so the entire county is not a hotbed of anti-self defense zealots.

Across the country, communities, police departments and churches are sponsoring gun turn-ins to get “guns off the street.” At many of these events, private buyers are showing up, offering cash for the more valuable guns. These private additions to the public turn-in are effective, no doubt, in getting more guns off the street, because they add to the resources that are available to those who want to get rid of guns for something of value, be it a grocery card or a number of twenty dollar bills.

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

Click here to browse numerous examples of private sales at gun turn in events. Click here to read how private buyers handled challenges in Jacksonville, Florida. Click here for a Milwaukee event, and here for pics of a Phoenix “buy-back.”

©2015 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Link to Gun Watch

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

20 COMMENTS

  2. What a fraud. I know what I’m doing if Rham sets one up in Chicagoland. At least some people got some great deals and kept some valuable pieces of history from being scrap metal.

  3. The ultimate was done by John Boch of Illinois’ “Guns Save Life” when they turned in hundreds of dollars of scrap guns to fund firearms classes for youth. (pronounced “ute” in illinois)

    So gun buybacks do sometimes have some redeeming qualities.

      • They won’t have anymore in AZ because a law was passed that says they cannot destroy the guns the get from the events, they must resell them. Since The whole point of the buy back is to make sure the evil baby killing guns are destroyed, reselling them doesn’t suit their agenda so they won’t hold them.

  5. I have a broken polymer AR “ghost assault receiver” that I would love to have some county “buyback” from me so I can go buy a new AR lower. I bought the poly lower cheap for fun to see how long it would last. It only worked for about 200 rounds of 5.56. Too bad there have been no “buybacks” near me to take advantage of.

  6. For those in the mid-Atlantic, Fredericksburg, Virginia’s PD is doing their second “give back” program on that same day, December 12th at the city police station. To skirt State Law, they are not allowed to “buy” the guns, but instead somehow managed to convince people to turn in unwanted guns in exchange for a local rich lady who has more more money than sense to give a hundred bucks to one of a list of local charities of their choice.

    However, you may certainly come and offer cold, hard CASH if someone brings something worth an offer.

    • If I recall, they can buy them, but if they do they need to sell them to an FFL, which means that these events just don’t happen

      • The city of Fredericksburg is exploiting what they consider to be a loophole with the “give-back” twist. They plan to destroy the guns that are collected, in utter defiance of state law. A local gun-rights organization sued the city last year to try to stop them but the case was thrown out, because no person or organization has standing to call the city into question on whether or not their actions are against the law.

        So much for government by the people.

  7. I wish they would do a “gun buy back” in my area.

    I have an old, rusted out revolver and broke d*ck .22 that I wouldn’t mind trading in a gift card. Both just sit in my safe because I don’t know what to do with them.

  9. “Hall said officers plan to buy about $10,000 worth of gift cards to hand out at the event.”
    Yeah, with the taxpayers money. These events are like getting kicked in the balls twice. they use our money to destroy perfectly good firearms. For the children.

    • Not to mention the cost of the man power of the cops that could otherwise be out, you know, stopping crime and stuff.

  10. Instead of waiting for police and local officials to hold gun buybacks, private citizens ought to organize and create a “Fair Gun Buyback” thing. The slogan could be “Fair Cash for Fair Guns.”

  11. Dean, the Pinellas Sheriff is VERY much opposed to the open carry bill making its way through Tallahassee. And many of the residents, being transplants from less-free states, are anti-2A.

  12. i have posted this on reddit and two facebook groups asking others if they would like to attend as i plan on attending this event to possibly save a few new (to me) firearms from being turned into slag. are there any other forums i could post this on to gain awareness? also what would be the best way to go about finding out where we should stage and gather? showing up early the day of the event? calling the non emergency line and asking questions? i am all aboard on this i just have not done it before and would like it to go as smoothly as possible.thank you for reading this and any response is appreciated.

Comments are closed.