I read Joe Nocera’s article “Notes from a Gun Buyback” in the New York Times today regarding a gun buyback and amnesty program in Newark that essentially put into action a plan I outlined in my earlier post “Let’s Complicate the Killing Spree–Buy the Killers’ Guns.” Nocera writes that critics of the buyback plan claim it only eliminates guns that would have never been used in a crime anyway. That got me to thinking about what type of person would actually make use of a “sell your gun to the government so they can destroy it” program and the type of person likely to use a gun to commit a crime. Here’s what I came up with:
Unlikely to Sell Guns to a Buyback Program:
- Gun Collectors would not sell their collections knowing the guns would be destroyed.
- Active Hunters would not sell guns they may want to use. They also wouldn’t sell at a discount to the government when other hunters and collectors will pay full price.
- The Anti Anti-Gun Crowd would not sell their guns to any program they see as an affront to our 2nd Amendment rights.
- The Cold-Dead-Hand Crowd would never sell their guns to the government, period.
- Responsible Gun Owners legally purchase, register, maintain, and ensure safe storage of their guns–and they own guns for a reason. Why would a responsible gun owner suddenly decide that protecting their home is no longer important?
Likely to Sell Guns to a Buyback Program:
- Fiscally Irresponsible People would sell their guns on Tuesday for hamburgers today.
- Impulsive People bought their guns on a whim so why wouldn’t they also sell them on a whim?
- Drug Addicts always need their next fix but they aren’t stupid. Why would they commit a high-risk crime like armed robbery for $50 when they could sell their gun for $500 at zero risk? Also, aren’t drug addicts going to be more worried about their next hit than what will happen on the eleventh hit when they are no longer able to commit armed robbery?
- Thieves steal things and sell them. Who are they selling them to? I guarantee they would jump on the prospect of getting more cash at zero risk than being gouged by a fence or jacked when they try to sell to another criminal.
- Desperate People. What’s the prime driving force behind most desperation and crime? Money. Paying desperate people for their guns decreases their desperation a bit while eliminating tools that are very dangerous in the hands of desperate people.
- Troubled Youth may enjoy swiping their parents’ guns and shooting at signs but I imagine they would also enjoy selling their parents’ guns and buying some weed. So what type of parents would have their troubled children selling their guns for weed? You got it–
- Irresponsible Gun Owners, although in a more indirect manner. Gun owners that have troubled, desperate, thieving, fiscally irresponsible, drug addict children with access to their guns are no longer responsible gun owners. If their kids can take their guns and sell them they probably shouldn’t have owned guns in the first place.
And here’s the big one–the irrefutable iron-clad group of people that got me writing this post in the first place. Drum roll please…
- Gun Owners that never wanted the guns they currently own! The widower that had a gun-loving spouse. The woman whose ex-husband left a box of guns in the closet. And, most importantly, the man that just inherited twenty guns from his deceased father. Without a gun buyback program, what do we think will happen to those twenty inherited guns? Yep–they’re getting sold. Twenty guns will be sold to a friend, or a friend of a friend, or a pawn shop, or a gun dealer, or on Ebay, or on Craigslist. Then they will be sold again, and again, and with every sale those guns wind up in different hands. Almost all of those hands will be unknown and almost all of those transactions will be invisible. The one thing we will know about many of those transactions, though, is that the current hands on those guns belong to people who actually buy guns on Craigslist, or Ebay, or from a friend of a friend, and who have no problem making that type of private transaction. Do we really want guns trickling down from responsible but deceased gun owners to inheritors that want to sell them to buyers that prefer private transactions? I don’t think so.
The critics claiming gun buyback programs are ineffective, because they are only destroying legal guns that would never be used in a crime anyway, are just plain wrong. To be correct they would need to prove that a gun acquired through government buyback has never come from the hands of a person on my “Likely to Sell” list. I say never because having just one desperate person, or troubled youth, or drug addict tossing a gun in the shredder makes the entire program a success. It does only take one. Sandy Hook is indisputable proof of the damage one person can deal.
C’mon. Let’s go make us some expensive metal shavings. Or bracelets. Jewelry For a Cause is melting guns down into bracelets.
