U.S.A. – -(Ammoland.com)- “If you have guns around your home that you want to get rid of, here’s a way to get some extra money before the holidays,” The Patch gushes about an incentivized vassal disarmament ceremony scheduled for this Saturday. “The Walnut Creek, Concord and Clayton police departments will host a ‘community gun buyback event’ at the Concord Pavilion later this month.”
Cities in Contra Costa County, eh…? Isn‘t that the place where a former sheriff reportedly “financed his re-election efforts with selective issuance of both ‘CCW’ (Carry Concealed Weapons) permits and a ‘quasi law enforcement status’ totally illegal and improper in its own right”?
Unsurprisingly, this promo piece masking as “news” lists none of the downsides to such public acts of fealty to the state, including:
The very name is a lie. You can’t “buy back” what you never owned.
No less an authority than the National Institute of Justice concluded:
“Gun buybacks are ineffective as generally implemented. 1. The buybacks are too small to have an impact. 2. The guns turned in are at low risk of ever being used in a crime. 3. Replacement guns are easily acquired. Unless these three points are overcome, a gun buyback cannot be effective.”
The article advises “remain inside of you [sic] vehicle during the actual surrendering process.” Does that not clue the gullible in on exactly what is going down?
“All of the guns collected will be destroyed,” we are told. What if that gun was stolen and duly reported? What if the person being paid is the thief? What if it’s what the antis like to call a “crime gun” and the cops are disposing of the evidence?
And what if, contrary to all public posturing, the turn-in actually increases public danger?
Let’s start with The Patch story. It’s well established that most people see headlines and then presume to be informed. Seeing the gun on top of all those hundred-dollar bills when a gift card is what’s being offered is misleading enough, but the selected stock photo goes further and creates a dangerous impression: The cylinder of the “buyback” revolver is clearly loaded (I’ve seen “artists” do worse).
You have to get down into the story details to find that’s not how the collection team wants you to do it. What the police want and the way they’re instructing people to comply is not only inadvisable, it’s flat-out dangerous.
“Transport all firearms to the Concord Pavilion unloaded. Keep all firearms stored in the trunk or locked container during transportation and arrival.”
They’re telling people of unknown experience to handle and transport firearms. How many of those have even heard of Jeff Cooper’s Four Rules, let alone know them and practice them? How many know that removing a magazine doesn’t mean there’s not a round in the chamber?
Just the other day we saw the story of the security guard who “was inspecting the gun ‘to familiarize himself with the weapon’ when he accidentally fired one round into the victim’s back while she was sitting at a casino-style slot machine.” And it’s not just “rent-a-cops.” Remember where the term “Only Ones” originated, when a DEA agent proclaimed himself “the only one professional enough” to carry a gun and then shot himself in the leg in front of a classroom full of schoolchildren.
And there are no guarantees the cops people surrender their guns to will be any more competent, as I’ve illustrated on a couple of different occasions when the media seemed not to notice. The following paragraphs reference discontinued pages so I had to use archived links from The Wayback Machine, meaning they may load very slowly.
From one of my old Gun Rights Examiner columns:
But here’s the one question I really wanted to ask, and since all “official” media members covering the event are evidently oblivious, someone sure needs to: What the hell is one of Beck’s “Only Ones” … doing with his booger hook on the bang switch at the “buyback”?
On Monday, I blogged about a Jersey City gun “buyback” … my focus was on the ignorant cop collecting guns who was photographed with his finger curled on the trigger.
A truism I find continually applicable and useful because it constantly manifests itself is “With ‘progressives,’ every day is Opposite Day.” How predictable it is, that anti-gun (for everyone but themselves) “Only Ones,” putting on a kabuki performance under the fraudulent gun-grabber premise of “commonsense gun safety,” actually end up endangering the public.
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.