Regular readers will recall that I recently took the Haverhill Mass police department to task for holding a gun buyback. It was a generic sort of post; I used the PD’s “no questions asked” firearms marketplace to illustrate the idea that gun buybacks are really dumb on all sorts of levels. After the piece appeared, a member of TTAG’s Armed Intelligentsia emailed a link to wtnh.com story chronicling an upcoming gun buyback in New Haven. The four-hour Constitution State swap meet is a particularly good example of a bad idea. To wit: “Amnesty for possession of a firearm without a permit is granted for those who turn in a firearm or ammunition at the time they walk into the gun buyback facilities. It is not granted for the time prior to walking into the facility or after leaving the facility.” Imagine a gun-laden criminal racing a cop from the parking lot into the New Haven Police Academy. If only.
I think it means that if you’re driving all the way across town with a gun, and you are stopped and popped halfway, you can’t use “I’m on my way to the gun buyback” as a get out of jail free card.
Still a colossally stupid detail of a colossally stupid operation.
“Dumb” has no limits.
So you turn in the gun anonymously. Except you can bet they check ’em against the crime logs and dust ’em for fingerprints. And about them gift cards, anyone wanna bet they are serial numbered and have a GPS chip in ’em and/or they require an ID to cash ’em in.
Now that’d be a gun buyback program!
Oh yeah, make sure you saw off that shotgun barrel so you get the extra fifty bucks!
TTAG should hold its own gun buyback. No beaters, clunkers or broke-ass guns. No Hi-Points. Just good quality working firearms. For a $100 grocery card from Stop & Shop. Two grocery cards for an all-original, as-issued gas trap Garand. Three if it has its original sling and bayonet.
Yeah, that’s gonna work.
I’ll donate the cards for the M1.
Hell I would donate too for an M1!
Sounds like entrapment …..its like arresting people infront of the jail during one of those get your warrents taken care of events.
The worst thing about these events is the enforcers of the law are broadcasting a message of contempt for the law. If you own a gun lawfully, you should not be enticed (bribed) into surrendering it. If you have a gun in defiance of the law, the police should not offer amnesty. Gun buybacks should be banned.
“It is not granted for the time…after leaving the facility.” Does that mean once a criminal or person in possession of an illegal gun leaves the gun buy-back premises the cops can then pounce on him or her? Whether that can/will occur or not imagine how a criminal or just a person untrustworthy of cops might read the statement.
That was my first thought as well. They probably meant “if you change your mind and walk out with an illegal gun you’re toast” but that’s not how it reads to me. As Admiral Akbar would say, “it’s a trap!”
I like the idea of setting up a table across from the gun buyback and offering double for good firearms. I always see at least two or three guns worth having in the PR shots of the spoils of the buybacks. Johnny Law probably wouldn’t like it much, though.
As a former Connecticut resident (and native) I troll the WTNH website every few months. The sad thing is I almost always find that someone I knew was arrested. Its never the same person either. I guess I really have no point in making this comment.
It does make me proud however that I now live in a progun state and also that even how little I am doing with my life, Im still ahead of others lol
Think I could get away with sitting outside a gun buyback with a laptop and buying the nice(r) pieces for myself for a slightly higher amount than the police are paying?
Assuming it’s legal in the first place.
It’s 12:01 Friday morning and this blog hasn’t had a new post for hours. Geez! Guess I’ll go back to listening to the old classic rock music on the y-tube from the ’60s and ’70s.
You can’t fix stupid.
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