Boston’s Prided Gun Buyback Program Takes One Whole Entire Gun Off The Street This Year

Aug 17, 2015 | 3 comments

Walsh administration’s gun buyback program a complete flop this year in Boston

 

Via Matt Stout, Laurel J. Sweet at the Boston Herald News

The Walsh administration’s much-touted gun buyback program has taken in just one firearm so far this year — a stunning drop from the more than 400 that came in last year, putting police woefully behind last year’s pace in the overall number of guns they’re removing from the street, a Herald review found.

Boston police say the program is still active and funded — though a spokesman couldn’t say to what level — and Mayor Martin J. Walsh yesterday renewed his call for residents to turn over firearms in exchange for gift cards valued from $100 to $200.

But police officials couldn’t say why they’ve taken in just one gun in 2015 after claiming 410 last year.

Police say however, that the huge drop shouldn’t indicate poor police work, because so far they have seized 400 “crime guns” through arrests and other ways, and last year the total amount of guns seized was 651.

The buyback program started last year after a surge of violence in Boston, and violence continues this year mostly with illegal gun owners. Buyback programs have considerable criticism with people arguing that criminals would rather keep their guns and the intimidation, fear, and street cred they get to push on others than the 100$-200$ they would get from turning them in.

Officials in Sonoma County, Calif., for example, found in a research project launched in 2013 that while buybacks were good at “garnering a favorable media response, the programs do not have a substantial impact on reduction or prevention of gun violence and typically have no long term effects.”

After the Newtown massacre, a Washington Post columnist talked about bringing a buyback system to America, like the one modeled in Australia. However the homicide rate in Australia only fell 0.4% when they launched their gun buyback, and it dropped 3.9 percent in America without taking away the right to bear arms. Studies have been done by very credible sources that prove more guns = less crime.

The gun buyback program just seems to bring in older people who have a collection of guns with a few to spare or legal gun owners hurting for cash. The whole gun buyback proposal brings the blame, like the usual liberal argument, on the firearm rather than the criminal. We all know guns are just materials that make up an object, it takes a person to use the gun for good or evil.

If a thug decides to go and turn in his weapon, there are many other ways he could get a new one. The point should be to get criminals off the street, not guns. Guns in the right hands save lives every day, there are countless amounts of defensive gun uses every year from legal gun owners protecting themselves and those around them from being victims.

Author: Annie Stonebreaker

Annie is attending North Idaho College for a degree in journalism and is enjoying writing about everything guns for Defend and Carry. She finds our right to bear arms imperative and can get quite spicy on the topic. In her spare time she loves reading, playing outdoors, any water activities, eating sweet treats, eating in general, playing music or spending time with her Fiance, and being surrounded by good friends, conversation and laughter.

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  • Saint_Barry

    I think these “gun buyback” events make liberals feel good. If they feel good, then it means they care, and who could put a price on that?

  • Anth Demas

    Let’s clear up the “Australian gun buyback” misconception here, because the difference between American and Australian “Buyback” programs couldn’t be more opposite. Let’s call Australia’s “buyback program” what it is: forced confiscation with mandated payback.

    Australia gave you an opportunity to turn in everything you own (gun related) by a specific date, because they are banning most citizens from having guns, and they don’t have a 2nd Amendment, or similar, right. But because the Australian Constitution requires that the Commonwealth may only take private property in return for “just compensation,” the Government increased the Medicare Levy, from 1.5% to 1.7% of income, for one year to finance compensation. So the citizens were all taxed to pay for the program, the government took most of the applicable arms, and those who owned were “paid back”. Those who didn’t had their taxes raised anyway.

    Now, rapes and sexual assaults have gone up. Murder has stayed about the same. While anyone who has studied this would have readily offered a subsequent, “I told you so”, it’s only unfortunate that Australia is the latest to take this test and fail with irreparable results to the citizens of that country. They were forced to trade their arms for a short monetary equal, and now crime is growing. Let’s hope those in DC learn that lesson now.

    • Allen Benge

      Gun buyback programs Are, as ‘Saint Barry’ says a feel-god activity for liberals. It is like wetting yourself in a dark suit. Makes you feel all warm, but no one else notices. Let’s face it, criminals are not giving up their guns, so the only ones affected are the law-abiding citizen. you do not make the criminals harmless by making the people helpless. Participating in a buyback program because you think criminals have too many guns is like castrating yourself because you think your neighbor has too many kids. The real victims of gun buyback programs is we, the people.