USA – -(Ammoland.com)- “’Bazooka’ turned in at San Francisco gun buyback event,” ABC7 breathlessly claimed Saturday. “More than 270 guns were turned in during a weapons buyback event … where police collected handguns, shotguns, high-powered rifles, and even an AT4 anti-tank weapon.”
Really? So San Francisco’s finest just took a weapon of war capable of wreaking untold carnage “off the streets”? A “bazooka”…?
Hardly. Someone (perhaps with SFPD? We’ll never know because of “no questions asked.”) turned in an inert tube, incapable of firing anything.
But don’t take my word for it:
“The launcher and projectile are manufactured prepacked and issued as a single unit of ammunition, with the launcher discarded after a single use… After firing, the AT4 is discarded. [T]he AT4 outer tube is built to take the stress of just one firing; it is not reusable and cannot be reloaded.”
They’re for sale as novelties (where they have not been banned by hysterical edicts) because they’re just tubes, albeit neat-looking ones for collectors who appreciate such things.
But using them to spook the herd is the same scam Los Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Beck used to deceive awestruck ignorant citizens five years ago. The trick worked so well Beck repeated it, giving his political masters another photo op to make it look like they were saving the citizenry from untold WMD terror. The transparent foolishness led some to conclude “The LAPD, and much of the media, kind of got punked.”
Did they really?
Based on results, the reemergence of the con in San Francisco shows those pulling it off know all they need to do is get the meme out there and any blowback in terms of correction will be something most of their marks will never learn about. And while it’s easy to believe “journalists” really are that subject matter-ignorant (and too lazy or unmotivated to even take 30 seconds to look up a Wikipedia entry), the ones whose agenda is being advanced know exactly what they’re doing.
It’s not even a new plan. Eric Holder laid it out for all to understand back in 1995, when he called on media, celebrities, educators, and other social influencers to do their part in a ceaseless and pervasive propaganda campaign to turn the collective consciousness against the idea of an armed citizenry:
“We need to do this every day of the week and just really brainwash people into thinking about guns in a vastly different way.”
That’s what gun owner advocates must understand about these so-called “buybacks.” We know they don’t work; that violent criminals won’t surrender the tools of their trade; that “no questions asked” means police can be used as fences and “crime gun” disposers; that the government can’t buy something back it never owned in the first place; and that such events actually encourage lawbreaking and safety violations by urging citizens who may not know how to safely and legally handle and transport firearms to bring them in anyway.
That’s not what the “buybacks” are about. They’re about manipulating perception. They’re about swaying most to “feel” the government is keeping them safe and either not asking any questions or better yet, asking the wrong ones.
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.
In addition to being a field editor/columnist at GUNS Magazine and associate editor for Oath Keepers, he blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.