An I-Team investigation finds some of the weapons taken off the streets during Chicago Police Department firearm turn-in events are very old, rusty and damaged. Others are fakes. But, those trying to stop Chicago violence insist every gun removed from circulation makes the city safer… CPD hands out $100 gift cards for firearms and $10 … Read more
Father Michael Pfleger, fresh off a suspension related to allegations of sexually abusing multiple teenagers, has announced a new gun buyback at his St. Sabina’s Church in Chicago. The anti-gun cleric is paying good money too: $200 for handguns or “assault rifles” and $20 for magazines. Here’s the catch, it’s open to all…if you’re 25 … Read more
Gun buyback programs (GBPs), which use public funds to purchase civilians’ privately-owned firearms, aim to reduce gun violence. However, little is known about their effects on firearm-related crime or deaths. Using data from the National Incident Based Reporting System, we find no evidence that GBPs reduce gun crime. Given our estimated null findings, with 95 … Read more
Decatur, Illinois held a much-publicized gun buyback last week. While the event took place on April 2nd, it turned out to be a late April Fool’s joke for well over 100 pepople still in line after the event’s staff ran out of cash for a second time in just over an hour. We reported on … Read more
“The time is always right to do what’s right,” the great civil rights leader (and gun owner) Martin Luther King once said. He was right in so many ways. Earlier this week, some do-gooders in Decatur, Illinois announced an upcoming gun “buyback” scheduled for Friday afternoon, April 2nd from 2:00p to 6:00p. Sponsors have dubbed … Read more
Illinois Representative Sean Casten feels deeply that “we have too many guns.” His innovative solution to this pressing problem: a buyback. But not just any ol’ buyback. The Daily Herald reported on it, saying: Already an advocate of stricter gun control laws, U.S. Rep. Sean Casten of Downers Grove this week voiced support for a … Read more
The government doesn’t like competition. It may be perfectly legal (in most jurisdictions) to stand outside a city-sanctioned gun “buy-back” and offer people more money than they’d get inside, but the city employees (read: police officers) who are being paid to man these events sometimes take exception to that kind of behavior. A south Florida … Read more
Guns Save Life loves Chicago’s gun buybacks. Three times in the past dozen years or so, the scrappy Illinois gun rights group has sold rusty junk to Chicago’s taxpayers, then used the proceeds to send young people to an NRA summer shooting camp. Saturday, Guns Save Life pulled it off again. Yes, we took our … Read more
“Reinstating the federal assault weapons ban that was in effect from 1994 to 2004 would prohibit manufacture and sales, but it would not affect weapons already possessed. This would leave millions of assault weapons in our communities for decades to come. “Instead, we should ban possession of military-style semiautomatic assault weapons, we should buy back … Read more
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