AP photo by Jeff Chiu.

There’s an old expression about stupid. Specifically…you can’t fix it. Such is the case on the Left Coast of America where some Californians are trading tools with which they could defend their homes and families for a half-tank of gas as part of a gun buyback scheme under way in Sacramento.

That’s right: Californians can trade a GLOCK for a $50 gas card…or about nine-ish gallons of gas at today’s prevailing prices in the Golden State’s capital city.

Yes, it’s true. Not only did Sacramento make the ludicrously low-ball offer to “buy back” something they never owned to begin with, they actually had no shortage of “special” people lining up to “cash in.”

From the Washington Times:

Rising fuel prices motivated California gun owners to give 134 firearms to the Sacramento Police Department in exchange for $50 gas cards, the department reported Sunday.

A statement posted on the department’s Facebook page said the Gas for Guns Buyback program ran out of gift cards 45 minutes into Saturday’s five-hour event. 

“Among the firearms received was at least one assault weapon, numerous components for privately manufactured firearms (ghost guns), and multiple other illegally configured firearms,” the statement read.

Chicago’s do-gooders have a long and storied history of foolishly trading $100 pre-paid debit cards for guns. As someone who has taken more than a few bang sticks up north to the Windy City myself, to say nothing of other Guns Save Life members in past years as well, $50 won’t even get me to take a second look.

Guns taken by Guns Save Life to one of Chicago’s Gun Buybacks in 2015. Image by Boch.

Frankly, with the city of Decatur offering $225, even a Benjamin’s worth of bounty doesn’t look so appealing any longer. Decatur’s $225 is real money, especially for obsolete or barely functional rusty antiques. Ditto for $35 for broken-down AR- magazines.

Image by Boch. Base image via City of Decatur, IL Facebook page.

But if California can line up enough fools to turn out to trade their safety for a half tank of gas (or a quarter tank for an F150), I suppose more power to them. Those who fail to embrace the proven benefits of firearm ownership sometimes have to learn the hard way to live, or die with the consequences of their decisions.

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71 COMMENTS

  1. i’d take a deuce and a quaker for the brazxilian nylon66 copy.
    that things dangerous.

    • Gun Control backfires again…Trade a firearm for gallons of gasoline that can be used to start a forest fire, burn down a house, make molotov cocktails, etc. And all of it without a background check…

      1) The Second Amendment is one thing.

      2) The criminal misuse of firearms, bricks, bats, knives, vehicles, etc. is another thing.

      3) History Confirms Gun Control in any shape, matter or form is a racist and nazi based Thing.

  2. California residents or I should say California voters, traded their guns for legalized marijuana, and legalized sexual Liberation a long time ago.

    • These should of already been “legal”. There should of been no trading involved. It amazes me how much you want Governement to tell you what to do, especially sexually.

      • Does it really still surprise you? Chris T is our resident statist, and a good reminder to watch for the enemy within. He happens to agree with us on gun policy but ultimately his mindset is a lot closer to that of the authoritarian left he claims to oppose, than it is to the mindset of any true freedom loving American.

      • Much like the left, he loves freedom but only the freedom he agrees with. The freedom he doesn’t agree with should be suppressed by the full might of the state, as far as he’s concerned

    • So what’s wrong with a bit of legalized sexual liberation? Wish I’d had it back in the bloody 1950’s when I could have managed it!
      As for the marjuana. Only tried it once a very long time ago. Was as sick as a dog and have had no interest in it since. Apart from that the only ‘recreationals’ I’ve had a go at and I must admit to excess on a few occasions is no icotine and alcohol. Even got a ‘fourty-a-day cigarette habit’ at one point. But the day after [and this is a fact, my ex-wife blew off with a traveller, I gave it up. That was 35 years ago. As for alcohol That’s been cut since around the turn of the Century to a couple of pints a week.
      Here in the UK I cannot bthink of a single occasion where the ‘government has ever told anybody what to do sexually though as you know HOMOSEXUAL acts between men but never between WOMEN was illegal until in historic terms relatively recently as it was in most of the world. Mind you I spent the best part of 20 years in the UK Military and as long as things were not obvious or predatory homosexuality was largely a victim of Nelson’s Eye. During WW2 there were infact all homosexual Bomber Crews and as Winston Churchill once remarke ‘the only traditions in the ROYAL NAVY that matter are, and I quote, ”Rum, Bum and Porrige Oats”.

  3. I have 12ga pipe gun and parts to make a lot of them waiting for a good “buy back.” Cost me $15 ea in parts and a little fun time to make them.

  4. I was watching an indie film a few weeks ago in which the characters found themselves in a dystopian near-future breakdown of society resulting in complete collapse of the metro area they were in. As they were making their way out of the city and encountering fewer and fewer people, they each had a couple of guns on them. A man in a business suit approached them with a suitcase full of cash and frantically offered it to them in exchange for one of their guns. After a tense but short conversation ending with a barrel pointed at the business man’s face to make him back off, one of the characters commented “that was a lot of money”.

    The other man sternly replied, “money means nothing compared to your gun.”

    • That’s a bloody FICTIONAL FILM for god’s sake and an entertainment NOT AN EXAMPLE to follow.
      There have now been no less than TWENTY SEVEN mass shootings, mostly of school children since the beginning of 2022. Apart from acts of ‘War and Terrorism’ which nobody can protect against completely iis MORE than those of the rest of the Civilised World.
      Meanwhile America stands with UKraine which has suffered an estimate 5500 casulaties to it’s Armed Forces due to combat and has admitted to over 15,000 Civilan Casulaties due to Russian shelling BUT at the same time tolerates over 20,000 victims, and counting, of GUN CRIME in America.
      Take a look sometime at how many casulaties have been suffered by bn the Armed Forces of the USA in the last 50 years and compare them with those who have become victims of Gun Crime. In nTREN YEARS of War in Afghanistan the US Forces sufferd around 6500 casualties as far as I can ascertain [though I may well stand corrected]. In the same period the body count for Gun Crime approached between 150, and 200,000.
      Surely to god that’s MUST indicate a cause for more rigorous gun control and America MUST questioinas to why other Civilised Nations do not a have the same kiind of out-of-control Gun Culture

      • Ain’t yah glad you dont live in the good ole USofA.
        Now STFU because you’ve got no dog in this fight.

      • The problem in America is gangs, not guns. America ain’t going extinct, what with over a quarter of a billion people…so don’t worry about our greatest nation on Gods (capital G, my friend) green Earth.

      • Most of that “Gun Crime” are actually post-birth abortions, where those adulting fetuses chose to terminate themselves. I see absolutely no problem here.

      • What out of control culture are you overlooking? I will explain how your comment – though cute – is shortsighted. I would more quickly trade all the California politicians local state and federal for PEACE OF MIND!! That is what needs to be traded for something better. Now to the Staged Shooting – Derelict First NON_RESPONDERS Culture. After several mass shooting scenarios these all take on predictable patterns since Columbine; since Sandy Hook, since Parkland and more recently in Uvalde; all of these are staged, pre-planned, well-funded, and have cooperation with LE. This kid is 18 years old, someone who did not know him would easily see that an 18 year old carrying a rifle is TOTALLY OUT OF PLACE on a grade school campus. An adult would suggest ; “Hey kid, would you mind sharing what class you are going to do a show and tell with that rifle?” or: “hey kid, what the hell are you doing here with that rifle?” People knew him and also were aware that he was nutso – he had problems. That does not provide this kid with a carte blanche access into school grounds that he matriculated from five years prior!! 2) The rifle was an expensive firearm that I doubt this kid could afford leading me to state that Soros or Bloomberg style filthy money funds these shootings, and the perps carry more ammunition than a combat soldier would. 3) THe problem child usually hangs out with druggies, gangs, toughs, is mesed up in some serious way in this case hung out with Mexican Cartel figures. 4) The school was accessible 5) The door to the interior of the classroom areas were unlocked – open! 6) Law Enforcement over the last two years have asked and even begged for respect. Many maintain respect for LE, but in this scenario I cannot. Supposedly every police force in every city across America has convinced city fathers and the government that they NEED SWAT gear and exist for one purpose only – For scenarios such as this school shooter. These SWAT were reluctant, compliant, paid not to engage, Derelict is what I call it – They have Level 4 or better body armor and kevlar helmets cause they like to play soldier – BUT Like Uvalde, dont want to really get involved. 7) This is the reason for being!!! So, one after studying and restudying all the scenarios, the pattern that troubls me is that the loss of young lives is a requirement for that element – the death of kids – will act as the catalyst for America to feel outrage and uniformly shout NO MORE SCHOOL SHOOTERS!!!! Oooops THe outrage is supposed to trigger a NO MORE GUNS sentiment. the HUGE Problem with this poor rationale is that the parents of every child who was murdered in the shootings OWN the same platform firearm!!! Everybody owns an AR and always will. It is a user friendly firearm, light, women find it easy to use; men find it simple and effective to use. NO Killing children will not should not twist the logic so that every rifle in every gun safe across America is the blame!!! SOrry Politicians, things do not work that way!!! The shooter is the responsible person for committing multiple murders and that is it!! The AR is not a military application firearm as so many are deceived to believe – THe military does not use the AR-15. So there is something very rotten to the core with these staged, pre-planned, well funded, patsy-driven shooting scenarios. The deaths pull attention away from the dynamics of what happens first to what occurred last — Death, but politicians use these deaths as leverage to confiscate your firearms and rarely does one hear blame placed upon the shooter. CITIZENS DISARMAMENT is the main AGENDA ITEM with regard to school shootings. Last 8) Who dreamed up that schools HAVE TO BE gun free zones?? Who wrote the policy that has been the death of many a child and they walk around free??? If I am wrong in any way — Please enlighten me. Thanks you for your time.

  5. My spouse explained it to me this way: she took the 2020 Census data for California, broke it down by political affiliation, assigned arbitrary names of Stupid – Democrats and Not Stupid – Conservatives and distilled that into three Venn diagrams. The spheres were labeled California, Stupid, Not Stupid. She then placed them in conjunction and found that the CA and Stupid were at an almost 85% intersection while the Not Stupid reflected the remaining 15%…Intersectional [sic] Math proves beyond a shadow of doubt that 85% of California residents are Stupid Democrats.

    Here endeth the parable…

    • So here we are then. The ECONOMIC POWERHOUSE of the USA [CALIFORNIA as an ECONOMIC entity is the FIFTH largest economy in the world and something like 1/6th to 1/7th that of the USA] is the only SANE sane State. So some rather dodgy and wholly imaginery ‘maths or statistics’ by some illiterate woman has gained traction with you apparently. Just shows how totally idiotic the political discussion has become in the USA among the American Gun Freaks who cannoytt see the truth when it hits them in the face.
      Sooner or later if that Ge un Freak Community does NOT police itself the State will have no choice but to do it for them simply in the interests of survival.
      Surely it cannot be right that the number of deaths due to basically uncntrolled civilian gun ownership exceeds by at least a factor of TEN the AVERAGE annual Death rate in the US Forces in Combat

      • “Surely it cannot be right that the number of deaths due to basically uncntrolled civilian gun ownership exceeds by at least a factor of TEN the AVERAGE annual Death rate in the US Forces in Combat”

        Another of your apples to oranges comparisons with zero references to support your assertion…exactly what we expect from a subject of the Crown whilst dressed in his motley.

        • I’ve no idea why Uncle Albert is bashing Americas Right To Be Armed, it’s not like he can vote here on anything,,,,,errr wait, maybe he can. Let’s see , hates gunms,bashes America, likes theBiden, yup.
          Now the question is on how many ballots the dem party sends him.

      • Meaningless drivel, my neo-Marxist comrade. Remove gang deaths and the problem is nearly zero…unless you are dumb enough to include suicide in your stats.

      • Meanwhile, more than double that number have committed suicide, and half again as many have died in car accidents–a number that is also rising. A gross approximation is that 250,000 people die every year due to medical errors. The estimated number of new cancer cases in the United States in 2020 was 1,806,590, and 606,520 people were expected to die from the disease, according to the National Cancer Institute. And it is only the second leading cause of death. Gun deaths do not break the top ten.

        Active shooter incidents, such Uvalde, and as defined by the FBI, amounted to 61 incidents last year with 105 deaths. These incidents exclude the drive by or other gang related shootings, the vast majority of which involve the use of handguns, and are also on the rise. The majority of people murdered with firearms in the US annually are blacks, not white racists or teenage=rs with “issues” or frank mental disease (schizophrenia for example).

      • California also has 161,000 homeless people, and last year suffered 2200 murders. Los Angeles has held the nickname “gang capital America” since 1930 because approximately 120,000 gang members reside in the city, and tens of thousands more in surrounding Los Angeles County. So tell us again about California’s progressive gun laws as reducing violent crime and what a utopia this is.

      • People in this country have owned guns for well over 200 years and only in the last 50 years have there been these mass shootings by these insane creeps. Why? What has changed in the last 50 years? I’ll tell you why. In the last 50 years, there has been a complete breakdown in way too many families. Every one of the creeps who shot up a school killing innocent children was raised without a father. As one sows, so shall one reap. Our decadent culture is now reaping what it has sown.

    • LeMats are awesome. I’ve been on the fence about buying a replica for a while. I usually only get a replica if I have the original, but I don’t think I’ll ever have LeMat money

    • I don’t know about that, but the rust 1873 in the middle of the picture is a Colt.

    • Yeah but you could probably get two or more rocks by trading them a gunm that worked.

      • possum…My fact filled post under tsbhoa.p.jr above is awaiting moderation before it can be seen and read. That’s 3 times in 2 days…Moderated again with no reason whatsoever provided.
        If it’s a human doing this…Here’s how it works with me. I call national radio hosts who actually support The 2A and let America know about sites who deny Free Speech.

        • I doubt that it’s an actual flesh-and-blood decider. I think it’s because of how the moderation system is set up. I’ve had posts “moderated” because I put in more than one link, or more than one tag (boldface, quote, italics).

          I wrote to the site owners to request that they have a posting policy and FAQ available, and mentioned the wonky moderation. But I haven’t heard back yet.

        • that’s because your response was not a reply to my comment.
          merely an attempt to insert yourself into an undeserved position.
          thank goodness at least it was profound.

  8. I wouldn’t call 134 Firearms a resounding success………In that regard, pertaining to Census Data, it’s funny how many Liberal Urbanite California Residents, choosing to remain in the State, are looking to move into Golden State Countrysides.

    Good luck to them in trying to survive. Especially without firearms.

  9. Hey, the guns belong (theoretically, at least) to the people who turn them in. If they want to give up a gun for a $50 debit card, let ’em do it. A stupid transaction (they could get more, in almost every case, by putting it on consignment at their local FFL), but everyone has the right to be stupid – after all, we allow ourselves to be subjected to the idiocy of dacian and MinorIQ.

    If I were still a California taxpayer, however, I’d feel some kinda way about having Gavin “Hair Gel” Newsom use my tax money to buy up guns that were never likely to have been used in a crime in the first place, but that’s what idiot KKKalifornia voters voted for. And, as H.L. Mencken said, they’re getting it . . . good and hard.

    Does provide a convenient method of disposing of “crime guns” that are too hot to move, otherwise, so I guess if I were a professional assassin, I might use local idiots to dispose of my evidence, while also getting a bonus.

  10. The shame about gun buy backs isn’t that leftists desperate for a virtue signaling photo op turn in the Glock they bought just for the occasion. It’s the fearful grandma who turns in her deceased husband’s historic classics that should be in a museum rather than a scrap pile.

    I recently spoke with a guy who had a Liberator which was found at a garage sale. The widow thought it was a replica pop gun and sold it for $5. While I’ve never been lucky enough to find such a gem, I also don’t have the same city-wide advertising or appeal to folks who don’t know better to sell me firearms for a half tank of gas or less.

  11. People give up freedom for security every day for nothing. At least these idjits are getting $50 out of it.

    /sarc

  12. And when the gas tank runs dry what do they got. An empty tank and no gunms.
    Wow $6 a gallon, not there yet but moving closer to theBiden’s $15 a gallon.
    Yup, then we’ll be happy to buy an electric car, never mind the grid cant handle the over load.
    Carriage before the horse.
    North of me theres 26 miles of shut down wind machines, might be 6 to 8 months before the parts come in to fix the transfer problem( everyone’s anticipating next month’s utility bills with a big smile). And I think the parts are made in China where most of the batteries are made.
    Obama said he was going to change America and now his VP is the prez.

    • Golly I put gas in my minivan yesterday. I was buying freedom seeds in Indiana & low and behold it was 15cents cheaper for petroleum distillate. I’d never trade any gat for fiddy bucks!

    • That windpower deal is one of the biggest scams ever foisted upon the public. We have some just north of us, and it was a sweet deal for the landowners, but the general public is footing much of the bill.

    • Downunder our electricity costs are about to jump between 60-130%, depending on your state. And winter is coming.

      • Ouch!

        My local electric co is proud that they haven’t had a rate increase in 4 years…what they did was to institute a “Demand Charge” during the hours of 0700 – 1000 and 1700 – 2000 and pick out the highest period of usage during the month for each customer and charge you $1.38 per kWh used for a one hour period falling within those two time frames. If it is a cold winter or a hot summer that charge can be as much as $20 for that hour (multiplied by thousands of power subscribers). Rate increases have to be approved…demand charges are an internal fee that the company doesn’t have to clear with anyone…thieving bastards.

      • Looking up your electric rates I stumbled across how Australia encourages homes to have dual plumbing systems to handle grey and black water separately so that the grey can be used for lawn, tree, garden irrigation…that is a good idea! Probably would be a hard sell here in the US. Water treatment plants would have to jack their rates up to cover employee benefits because of the reduced revenue by not processing the grey waters.

  14. Wait a sec. At 6 bucks a gallon, premium is only 20 cents more? Is that real? It’s about 70 cents more around here, and we aren’t near 6 per gallon. Yet.

  15. The humane society reminds you that adopting a gun is a forever thing. Please don’t abandon your guns. Guns are forever. Gasoline is ephemeral. And, people are fickle.

  16. I’ve read about an enterprising individual who went to one of these buybacks, then went down the line of people to check what weapons they were intending on selling.

    If he found a desirable gat, he offered to buy it for more than the paltry sum offered by the cops.

    He built himself a nice collection over a couple of hours.

  17. Sign is out of date. Some places are selling regular for 1/10 of a cent under $6. Some project that we will be seeing $8 before the price sees any sign of dropping. And Biden loves it; he thinks it will cause people to spend $60K or more on electric cars, refusing to recognize that if we get too many of them, there won’t be enough electricity to feed them all.

    • Here in the bay area it’s already over 6 in some spots. And diesel is higher. Prices, courtesy of bidenflation are going up in all things.

      • And fuel prices equate to higher food prices, then add all the wheat and corn we cant import from U Crane , yup good times are coming.
        .
        paid $4.89 for premium today, I thought ” holy shit, used to buy gas for 25 cents a gallon, 14 if you drove to Arkansas. A $120 a week paycheck and had money left over.

        • Expect higher food prices. Ukraine accounted for about an eighth of world’s grain exports and countries in the middle east were among the biggest buyers.

    • @Mark N

      Federal transportation says that California (2010) had roughly 31 million private / commercial cars, trucks and buses. Another site said that the average yearly use of power for an EV is around 4,000 kWh…I tried working the math and got bogged down in the conversions…it works out to a LOT of electricity that California doesn’t have and can’t buy from other sources…especially considering that they (CA) are already planning on extending the number and duration of “rolling blackouts” this summer due to CA’s critical shortage of electrical power.

      However, Joey and Gavin still proclaim that Electric Vehicles are what you should be purchasing now!!

      Crying shame about those NG and coal fired generating plants the Dims are / have been closing across the country.

      • Not to mention the shortage of working EV chargers. You can wait hours in a line to charge your EV.

        • Well, after all, chargers and adapters break and are subject to “mostly peaceful” vandalism.

      • Not to mention that Kommiforina is preparing to TEAR OUT hydro dams. The only “green” energy other than nuc.

        • Save the fish! Let the people fry!
          The City I live in has its own hydro power plant, but along with everyone else, has been ordered by the state to decrease its reliance on hydro power (which almost all of our generating capacity) to save the salmon, even though no salmon get that far upstream for one, and if they did, the Shasta Dam (owned by the feds and which isn’t going anywhere as it not only produces power but lots of irrigation water and water for LA) stops those fish in their tracks. Stupidity.

      • Old Guy in Montana,

        They’re laser focused on the goal of completely destroying the fossil fuels industry to the point of unavailability to the commoners. They know they won’t have to live with the consequences of that, so why would they worry about it?

        Have faith! People being born 80 years from now will thank you for half a degree of less warming, which is another goal. Is it weird that we’ll never be around to see if they did it? Even if we were, we couldn’t check their work because they have yet to be correct ON A SINGLE FUTURE TEMPERATURE PREDICTION. No matter what, they’ll say it helped.

  18. If Californians where actually smart they wouldn’t elect the leaders they have. It will just help new gun sales out in the future.😁

  19. DSG has 30 round mags for around $12 each. Buy 1000 of them and “turn them in” for $35, which was apparently offered in IL. Not a bad profit and a great way to get your tax money from the thieves in that state.

    • I saw 30’s for six apiece plus shipping yesterday. Global Ordnance has pistol mags for six apiece. I would roll all my change and order a truckload of them if my town had an event like that one.

  20. Some Californians are idiots. OK, make that most. I can say that because I don’t live in Salinas anymore.

  22. Lumber has gone up, but I think slamfires and filament are still cheep enough to turn a profit.

  23. Lol. The party of global warming religion, giving people money to destroy the planet. Delicious.

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