How does selling your gun to the government, disarming yourself at the taxpayer’s expense, honor the victims of a spree killer? CBS knows! “Angela Atkins came to the Los Angeles gun buyback with two hunting rifles and thoughts of the children who died in Newtown, Connecticut. ‘It was emotional,’ she said. ‘I cried. And I just felt like those were everybody’s children.’ Asked if she is getting rid of her only guns, Atkins said: ‘Yeah. I couldn’t send them a sympathy card or anything, so I just said, ‘Well, that’s the best thing I can do.'” Double notprops to CBS for A) finding someone who made that illogical leap and B) not mentioning all the other participants at the no-questions-asked LA Gun Buyback who were motivated by cash or a desire to get rid of a gun used in a crime. Let’s switch to latimes.com and have a look at that action . . .

Cars queued up for blocks at the drive-through events, with the city giving cards worth up to $100 for handguns, shotguns and rifles, and up to $200 for assault weapons. There was a bit of haggling involved, but the guns were all taken.

“What do you got?” an officer in Van Nuys asked a man in his late twenties as he pulled up in a green Mazda.

“Just one handgun, I’ve had it since high school,” the man replied.

“Will you take $50 for this?”

“Sure.”

Many came bearing more than one gun. They pulled 22 pistols from the trunk of one white Honda, a haul that earned the driver $1,000.

Two men in a pickup truck with two children in the back seat handed over a rifle, a pistol and a MAC-12, altered with a silencer.

Again, no questions asked. So I’ll ask one: what the hell’s happened to our society when we vilify the means of our self-defense while paying criminals to destroy evidence of their crimes? Just wonderin’.


Meanwhile, that was the snapshot. Here’s proof of what CBS missed (i.e., the profit motive and no change whatsoever to the basic desire for armed self-defense):

“That young guy shot up all the kids and they blamed the mama because the mama had the weapons in the house,” Valerie Butler said, in explaining why she was waiting in line two hours in South Los Angeles to get rid of an old handgun.

Yet Butler, 50, said she was not getting rid of both of her guns.

“Just one,” she said, and laughed. “There’s a bunch of nuts out here, and they’re coming in when you’re sleeping. You got to protect yourself.”

. . .

“If I could get $100 of free groceries, it’s worth it,” said Charles Edwards, 60, waiting in line next to his old .22 revolver after driving to Los Angeles from Fontana. “I wouldn’t do it for $40. That’s why people are here. They feel bad about all that’s happening, but times are tough.”

He still has a shotgun at home. “That’s all I need,” he said.

Oh what the heck, another question: how much did the feelgood LA buyback cost taxpayers? The LA Times is strangely silent on this point. Let’s go with “a lot” and forget to add-in all the police overtime and administrative costs. And give the Times genuine props for ending their story this way.

By 2 p.m. in Van Nuys, the police began telling people they were out of gift cards.

“I’m not giving this away for free,” said Sam Ferrell of Reseda as he took a drag of his cigarette in his truck.

Ferrell said he was hoping to sell his stepson’s handgun. “There are too many kids being killed by these things,” he said.

He said he didn’t plan to turn in any of his own guns, but that he was glad his stepson didn’t have his.

“I need my gun, but not everyone who has one needs one,” he said.

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46 COMMENTS

  1. Really? You are willing to punish yourself for something someone else did and that you had no connection with? Do any of you dumbasses in CA want to pay the traffic tickets the cops just gave me? Come on, one of you HAS GOT TO BE DUMB ENOUGH…..

  2. Ferrell said he was hoping to sell his stepson’s handgun. “There are too many kids being killed by these things,” he said.-

    I wonder how many anti-gun wives and family members thought this would be a great way to get rid of their relative’s guns in a hurry. Be careful who you share your bed with, as your anti-gun spouse may choose to donate your collection to salve their own conscience.

    • Let’s see, he’s on camera stating that he is selling his stepson’s handguns, which is proof it’s stolen. I would press charges on the hypocrite. Wow, just wow. Now, you know why step parents get a bad rap.

      • Lol I’m angry at my stepson and I don’t want him to have a gun to defend himself when I come knocking… “You put your seed in my daughter’s belly!” (Followed by sound of 12 gauge pump)

  4. Another part of America not American.A nation divided.Bunch of sorry saps.Amazing,countrys only 200+ yrs old,how soon we forget.Short memory.

  5. Many came bearing more than one gun. They pulled 22 pistols from the trunk of one white Honda, a haul that earned the driver $1,000.

    22 pistols or .22 pistols?

  6. I am with you on this one. If you have two guns, selling one of them is not a memorial, it is a financial transaction. If you are selling 22 guns at once, then my guess is that you are “upgrading your arsenal”.

    Still, if you have a gun around the house, and you can’t make it secure for whatever reason, then selling it is the right thing to do. If it only occurred to you because of a terrible tragedy, then feel free to say you are doing it “in honor” of the victims.

    Maybe the local gun store could think of a more suitable memorial. Maybe discount prices on good gun safes.

  7. When I was just a kid, my mamma used to tell me to eat everything on my plate because there were people in China who were starving. I felt so bad for the starving Chinese that I ate all my broccoli without upchucking even once.

    Now, I feel so bad for the people in Los Angeles who were brainwashed by media bullsh!t that I bought a couple of guns. I had tears in my eyes as I gobbled up every gun I could lay my hands on while thinking about the stupid people who had none.

    But when I thought about the Cali morons a bit longer, I couldn’t hold back an amazing technicolor yawn.

  10. I wonder if I can do one of these locally here in NC and put up $100 per working gun, and donate 20$ for each gun turned in, to a Newtown charity. Only I keep all the guns 🙂 It seems like it would be legal. I wonder how many $100 AR’s & AK’s I’d end up with? It’s tempting me.

  12. I did not participate in this event, and don’t work for the LAPD. I remembered the victims of Sandy Hook by writing a TTAG article about a lawful CCW holder engaging an Active Shooter, joined the NRA and FPC, and purchased a whole bunch of guns and gear.

    Given the population of the LA area, I am sure that some felons got rid of firearms. The scary thing is that they only got rid of the firearms they wanted to get rid of, and only after wiping their fingerprints off of them. Criminals and murderers going free only increases my motivation to continue legal promoting legal self defense.

    • I agree with these dumb gun baybacks a thug kills someone and can get rife of his murder weapon to the Police and get away with scrapping evidence.

  13. I honor the victims by not becoming a victim in the first place. And do my best to make sure my family is not a victim either. I do not think that to honor the victims, is to allow yourself to become one. I have been to numerous car accidents being on a fire dept. seeing dead children laying on the side of the road is not fun. I felt bad and think about it time to time, but selling my automobile to honor them does not honor them at all it hust shows them what a fool I have become driven by a agenda guilt driven meadia.

  14. Americans are so naive. Can you imagine people around the world wondering why Americans are freely giving up their guns when they legally can own them? There are huge numbers of gun-grabbers in America who scoff at the possibility of social and civil unrest requiring the need for guns for defense and hunting. Other gun-grabbers still retort to gun ownership for home and self-defense with character attacks and labeling.

    • I don’t think there is any reason to judge other people for their decisions. There are a lot of people, and not just in LA, who need food a lot more than they need a gun around the house. They might not have any way to keep the gun away from their kid, and might not have the cash for a decent gun safe.

      The government is not likely to call them up to defend their country, and it is doubtful that they could defend their home from an invasion anyway.

      Owning a gun is a personal decision. Some people buy guns because they think they need them, and then realize later on that they would not use them, or would not use them effectively, in an emergency.

      These people are not trying to take away your rights, they are merely saying that gun ownership is not a good idea in their household. We should applaud this decision. Every time an irresponsible gun owner sells back their firearms, it makes the “average” gun owner safer, and reduces the chance of children getting shot by accident.

      The problem with buy-back programs is not single moms opting out of armed self-defense. The problem is that criminals are stealing cheap Raven .25s, that are only worth about $40, and getting $50 as a reward.

  16. Hmmm ok so most people were just turning in “extra” guns they have? But yet they still keep one at home because they KNOW they’ll need it for personal protection??

    Sounds like a paradox to me! Like i been saying…humans have the worst decision making process under emotional herd stress.

  17. If those folks really want to get rid of their guns because its “right” there’s a simple solution. Buy/borrow a chop saw, cut up your gun(s), put in a bag & drop off @ the police station or local recycler.

    • I had a POS .380 once I’d have sold to one of these gladly! I didn’t feel right selling it to be shot because it was such a pile of crap–that thing regularly reversed rounds in the magazine while feeding them, would slam fire from recoil, etc.

      Wound up slagging the thing.

  18. All gun owners should show their respect for the Sandy Hook, Columbine, Jonesboro, and Ft. Hood victims by doing exactly what LA is doing – buying all the handguns, shotguns & rifles for $100 (or less) and all the assault rifles for $200 (or less) they can. And like LA, I won’t ask any questions. Who’s in?

    • I’ll show respect by being one of the GOOD guys with a gun…..I’d sacrifice myself for kids if I were at the right place at the wrong time. If you rather be a good guy WITHOUT a gun…. that’s your call.

  19. Can you see the gun haters response to a private gun buyback!? Their heads would explode trying to comprehend how you’re exploiting the “gun show loophole” while simultaneously not understanding why you’re not holding hands & singing “kumbaya”

  20. Twenty-two handguns… Yeah, that’s not suspicious at all.

    “Hey guys, another buyback! You got anything you need to get rid of? Just throw ’em in the trunk. I’ll make a list so everybody gets their cut.”

  21. Shows most Kaliforians are dumber than I thought shows the LAPD are scumbags They even wanted to ban toy guns from stores shows the idiocy of the liberal mindset.

  22. Oh, yea, it’s always a good thing to disarm yourself take $50 or $100 for something that is worth $1200 or more. Now that I think about it, those sheep really shouldn’t have guns anyway. Ignorant, emotional people don’t make the best of decisions, as the perfect example here…Or Cali that is…

  23. I’m sorry, but how can so many people be too stupid to just take the gun to a FFL and sell it for several times more than what the government thugs will give you for it?

  24. “’What do you got?’ an officer in Van Nuys asked a man…”

    I seriously hope that is not a direct quote. I dont bash cops but this bugs me lol

  25. I’m not believing that MAC bullshit for a second!!

    I love the suck fest the drive-by media creates when reporting on these gun buy-backs. They act like giddy preschoolers at an ice cream giveaway.

    Anyone who knows squat about firearms can take one look as the stuff people are turning in and know that most are non-functioning, broke-ass pieces of shit that were probably stolen from a neighbor or grandmother’s closet in order to get a “gift card” that can be use to go buy lottery tickets, smokes, blunts and 40s.

  26. Yeah, those didn’t look like the latest offering from Noveske. There falling all over themselves with pride over that weapons cashe, well… California is a lot safer now,lol, Randy

  27. “He said he didn’t plan to turn in any of his own guns, but that he was glad his stepson didn’t have his.

    ” ‘I need my gun, but not everyone who has one needs one,’ he said.”

    This guy should be shot (rhetorical).

  28. Saw a tableful of what appeared to be a LOT of brand spankin’ NEW (wait for it) AR’s & M-4’s on the tube, & when I say NEW I mean NO trace that they’d ever had a mag in the well & the normal sooty black phosphate didn’t have ANY signs of EVER being used or even handled much. Thought to myself “Wow, they look fresh from the box, no marks anywhere, even the grip looks untouched, mag well looks unused, sumpin’ funny here, probably dept guns”. And if I found out it was as I figured it wouldn’t surprise me a bit, don’t be shocked if there’s a spate of such events as they’re likely fake buybacks/turn ins to show that ‘responsible gun owners don’t support the NRA’s extreme position on assault weapons’ using dept issue guns with some property room stuff thrown in as ‘verifiers’.

    • I might have to agree with Cassandra on this one. If there are people out there selling $1000 rifles for $100, then something fishy is going on.

      Most likely the cops just put a bunch of guns on the table to make it look like people were turning in real stuff, and not just throw-away broken .25 autos.

  30. I’ll give them double, take a picture of them with my cell phone, trace the weapon, send a fired round to the lab, link the weapon to all the crimes they’ve committed, report it all to the police, then collect any rewards offered, thereby paying for the weapons and removing criminals from our streets.

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