There will be a gun turn-in event in early June in Opa-locka, Florida. While these events are commonly labeled with the propaganda term “buyback” the guns were never owned by the people attempting to buy them in the first place. The location for the event hasn’t been announced yet, but the last turn-in event on 25 January, only yielded eleven guns, seen above. This is a semi-annual event, and the numbers were much higher in 2012, with 58 turned in in June of that year, and over 100 snatched up at the December 22nd event, shortly after the Sandy Hook tragedy . . .

I have not seen the incentives to be offered at the event, but they appear to be between $50 and $100, as a total of $800 was handed out for the 11 firearms last time. But these events offer Second Amendment activists the opportunity to pick up some firearms at reasonable prices. The gift cards offered for firearms generally undervalue a significant number of the firearms turned in. In this case, there appears to have be a nice Smith & Wesson model 10, a Ruger semi-auto pistol, a sporterized Mauser rifle and a M91 Carcano Cavalry Carbine that looks to be in original military configuration.

The upcoming event is labeled as a “no questions asked” event. So the possibility of stolen firearms seems a little higher than usual. At most events, it’s reported that stolen guns are less than one percent of the total take. But in the December, 2012 event, six stolen guns were taken in out of over 100 turned in.

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 more cash for the worthwhile guns. You can help make the turn-in in your area more effective by standing on the curb with your “Cash for Guns” sign, offering more than a gift card for those valuable firearms.

This action serves many useful purposes. It gets more guns off the street. It helps keep fearful widows from being defrauded of most of the market value of the gun they’re turning in. And it prevents valuable assets from being destroyed by inflexible bureaucrats. A win-win-win situation.

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

Private sales are legal in Florida. Open carry of firearms is generally not legal, but it appears that brief displays of a firearm are accepted, if the display isn’t in a threatening manner. First hand accounts of this turn-in would be appreciated, as would any pictures. Updates will be posted as information becomes available.

©2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
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20 COMMENTS

  1. One of these days, a lucky SOBs gonna rescue an STG44 from the furnace….and for a pittance.
    That’s the stuff of an Ethics 401 Exam Question.

    ” You see someone bringing an STG.44 SMG to a no questions asked buyback table. If you buy the gun on the spot without ATF documentation, it’s a crime against the US Code. If you don’t buy it, it’s a crime against history and humanity.

    What do you do? Complete sentences, and in 10 words or less.”

  2. I wish they had one of these near me. I would love to find a nice S&W .357 mag revolver for a decent price.

  3. “First hand accounts of this turn-in would be appreciated, as would any pictures. Updates will be posted as information becomes available.”

    Most importantly, let us know if you score any nice boomsticks.

  4. Is Dean from Florida?
    ““no questions asked” event. So the possibility of stolen firearms seems a little higher than usual. ”

    I have yet to hear of a kicks4guns event that wasn’t no questions asked. you couldn’t spend your 50 starbucks card in jail

    • Some turn in events have recorded personal information. The new law in Arizona requires that people be given a receipt for a firearm turned in.

      Most of them do not collect information.

      I mention that in an event run by this department, just a few months ago, the number of stolen firearms was six percent versus the usual one percent or less. It seemed to be useful information.

  5. That’s the only downside of living out here in the Mountain West- No buybacks, and if you check the classifieds, you’ll quickly learn that EVERYBODY’S guns are worth lots of money, just ask ’em.

  6. Someone will need to keep an eye on what is going on, Opa Locka is one of the most corrupt and problem plagued City’s in Miami-Dade County.

  7. I’d check Opa Locka’s regs on private sales before going. While there’s no state law in Florida about private sale background checks in the early 90s they added a bit in the FL constitution that says you have to get a background check for private sales if the city/county says so. West Palm Beach has a background check ordinance; it’s ignored most of the time but it’s something the cops can harass you with. If Opa Locka has something similar on the books and you aggravate the cops there you might be hassled.

    Of course this assumes the police even know their own city ordinances.

    • Correct. For another example, down near Tampa (I think it’s Pinellas County) there’s a local ordinance that any gun sold on property where the public has right of access (not just “public property”) has to have a background check performed. So standing on a street corner with cash in hand won’t work, because that seller can’t transfer it to you without the check.

  8. It’s difficult to conceive what these events are intended to accomplish. It surely can’t be crime reduction as criminals who use guns need their guns and are entirely unlikely to turn them in, unless the proceeds are put towards acquiring a better gun.

    It surely can’t be targeted at thinning the collections of legitimate gun collectors since at best they would simply dump useless junk and retain all the functional firearms they have, secure in the knowledge that they could always sell some or all of their arms on the open market for far better prices.

    If it were aimed at getting those who do not wish to posses guns but find themselves in possession by circumstance to divest themselves of what might be valuable but unwanted property it would make more sense to run a campaign directing these (few) individuals to private buyers who would provide their own capital (and likely much more of it) to purchase these arms at market value.

    In fact the only conceivable reason to host an event such as this is to impress upon the more ignorant of the electorate that something is being done about violent crime (though in fact exactly nothing is being done by this sort of theater).

    I assure anyone who doubts, a violent person who disregards the law can make more with their gun in the time it would take to travel to the purchasing event than the purchasers will offer for the weapon. Further they can replicate this income every single day for so long as the possess the weapon.

    I submit that these types of purchasing events virtually defraud unsuspecting citizens while removing exactly zero functional weapons from criminal hands.

    There ought to be a prosecutorial investigation into any PD that hosts such an event for things such as theft by deception, blatant waste of tax payer money, and unlawful failure to enforce the law (granting amnesty where they lack such authority).

    • I believe that the primary purpose is political theater, to indoctrinate the uninformed that “guns are bad, except in the possession of the government” and that the proper thing to do with a gun is “turn it in to the police”.

      If that is the message you want to put out, these events make perfect sense.

      • I’m honored to have you reply to my comment.

        I’d fully agree with your conclusions (and they sort of spell out the between-the-lines thrust of my comment.
        However I would content that often at least some of those involved with such events there is actually a feeling that they are accomplishing something altruistic and useful. As an adaptation of Hanlon’s Razor suggests, at least some of these people really believe in what they are doing absent any hidden agenda (and this must be true for some of the aggregate ‘grabbers’ regardless of their particular activity). I believe the naivety of these people is preyed upon by those who do harbor agenda’s other than public safety, such as politicians and high ranking LEOs who want to give the appearance of ‘doing something’ about crime or even blatantly pandering to the ‘grabbers’ for political capital, and hard core civilian disarmament types who may be doing precisely what you suggest, attempting to advance the idea that only agents of the government should have guns and that all others ought to surrender them to the authorities, in which case it’s certainly theater.

        I ponder the nexus of these divergent goals because, while I’ve yet to sort out how, I believe there is opportunity to divide those who honestly wish to improve their communities and foster public safety, (both laudable goals that we can all agree on even as we disagree on what actions would advance those goals) from those who disingenuously support the former group in order to advance their own nefarious agendas at everyone else’s expense.

        The concept as it’s taking shape in my mind is to attack the latter group on it’s record of failing to back proposals that are proven to improve public safety (be it the Eddie Eagle program in schools to vigorous enforcement of laws against violent crimes and precursor crimes that tend to lead to violence, to their lack of support for judges and prosecutors who put violent criminals away for extended periods rather than running them through the ‘revolving door’. I think there is traction here given that this group of politicians are often seen as soft on crime to begin with and that for many there will be meat to such accusations readily available in their records.

        The goal is to cause the former group of essentially honest people with legitimate concerns to begin distancing it’s self from these vilified public officials who would then be rightly seen as part of the problem of criminal violence rather than it’s solution.

        The hope for the end game is two fold:

        That without the politicians suggesting to the honest groups that guns are the problem (in an effort to further their own agendas) perhaps these groups can be returned to neutral on the 2a or even won over to our side once they are educated in the facts, such has how concealed carriers commit crime at a lower rate than the general public or even police officers, and how violent crime rates have in all cases either decreased or stayed the same as the rate of concealed carriers goes up.

        The second hope is that, left feeling betrayed by the dishonesty of the politicians (and party!) that they had previously been so closely aligned with, these groups and individuals would gravitate right towards the center, thus facilitating the election of candidates who support liberty and the 2a, or at least that those in such groups would be less vocal for the opposition and less motivated to vote against pro-2a candidates and rather simply not vote at all.

        A daunting task for sure, and with lofty goals, but the more I mull the concept the more I think there is something in it which we can use to our advantage, some tack, some technique, something of utility.

        • There clearly are those who simply believe that it is a good idea to provide a means for people to turn in guns that they do not want.

          The best way that I can see to separate those from the ones who are after political theater is to suggest that the guns turned in be sold through commercial channels and the proceeds used for either charity or the public good.

          I have been surprised at the number of people who find that completely unacceptable. If the guns turned in are not to be destroyed, they want nothing to do with it.

  9. You know, all those guns “in the streets”, it’s really disturbing. You have to drive around them, keep from tripping over them, hope they don’t “go off”…

  10. Opa Locka is about 4 hours from where I live so I may be taking a roadtrip down there. Can’t help but question if its worth it though with only 11 guns turned in last time around. Guess i’ll just take a vacation in Miami at the same time in case it goes bust.

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