Police selling guns from buyback program

[PhantomPhixer]

This is rich:

http://www.breitbart.com/system/wire/up ... 14407-6464

ST. CHARLES, Ill., May 31 (UPI) --
A police department in the Chicago suburbs said some of the guns obtained from a buyback program will be sold to a pair of licensed dealers.

St. Charles Police Chief James Lamkin said about 20 firearms obtained through a gun buyback program and seized by courts will be sold to the dealers, the Chicago Tribune reported Friday.

"There's value in these guns," Lamkin said. "They're not illegal guns. Quite honestly, it's a bottom line for us."

Most other area departments, including the Chicago Police Department and the Illinois State Police, destroy the guns obtained through buybacks.

"There are individuals who will say, why not simply destroy them?" St. Charles Mayor Raymond Rogina said. "But when that happens, there will be someone saying that's taxpayer dollars [at stake] and you're throwing it away."

[Cage]

A lot of the departments do that insted of choping them up

[PhantomPhixer]

....so.... the government funded a buyback program using citizen tax dollars; guns were turned in presumably to get them off the street; they were then re-sold to gun stores by the police department who gets to pocket the cash....and the gun stores sell them back to the citizens...

So instead of getting guns off the street, this was basically a welfare program? Govt. pays citizens => police sell guns to shops => citizens buy guns from shop.

[DaRoller]

....so.... the government funded a buyback program using citizen tax dollars; guns were turned in presumably to get them off the street; they were then re-sold to gun stores by the police department who gets to pocket the cash....and the gun stores sell them back to the citizens...

So instead of getting guns off the street, this was basically a welfare program? Govt. pays citizens => police sell guns to shops => citizens buy guns from shop.

A redistribution program, it gets guns out of the hands of people that don't want them, or, in the case of court-related seizures, out of the hands of people that shouldn't have them; and gives them to people that do want them. I think it's a better idea than destroying them. Now, there's one too many middle-men in there, but it could be worse. Hopefully the police are getting more than they paid for them. Given the rates at those buyback programs, I'd be surprised if they didn't.
I think Arizona was recently trying to make that the law (selling, rather than destroying).

[PhantomPhixer]

Maybe I'm being too simple here....but couldn't someone who wanted to get rid of their gun sell it to a gun shop? Perhaps it was the amnesty angle that people were most interested in.

[DaRoller]

Maybe I'm being too simple here....but couldn't someone who wanted to get rid of their gun sell it to a gun shop? Perhaps it was the amnesty angle that people were most interested in.

Might depend on state laws, but most likely. I think the gun shop would be more likely to agree to purchase through the police, though, since the police department is probably clearing the gun first (making sure it's not stolen, etc.).
Interesting question would be how many of the people turned those guns in expecting them to be destroyed, not resold. They might have received fewer, either keeping them or going to the gun shop themselves.

[DiscipleofJMB]

Maybe I'm being too simple here....but couldn't someone who wanted to get rid of their gun sell it to a gun shop? Perhaps it was the amnesty angle that people were most interested in.

Might depend on state laws, but most likely. I think the gun shop would be more likely to agree to purchase through the police, though, since the police department is probably clearing the gun first (making sure it's not stolen, etc.).
Interesting question would be how many of the people turned those guns in expecting them to be destroyed, not resold. They might have received fewer, either keeping them or going to the gun shop themselves.

I will NEVER understand people that want firearms completely destroyed. So... you're smart enough to realize guns are evil... but you can't operate a saw or drill to render it inoperable? I know when I get mad at something and deem that it no longer needs to exist, I will break it and/or destroy it my damn self to make sure no one else uses it...



Si vis pacem para bellum

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[PhantomPhixer]

I don't understand it either. If it was the FedGov's intent to 'get rid of guns', then why put them back on the street? The whole thing is a sham.

[thekinetic]

Well there are people like me who in the stupidity of their youth let a firearm fall into disrepair and non working nature. I know I'm stupid but I want to get some money out of my old muzzle loader.

[DiscipleofJMB]

Well there are people like me who in the stupidity of their youth let a firearm fall into disrepair and non working nature. I know I'm stupid but I want to get some money out of my old muzzle loader.

That's understandable. Cracker Barrel seems to have enough decrepit old guns to hang over their fireplaces anyway...

Speaking of fires, a "buyback" is a good place to dispose of fire-damaged guns too. If they are legitimately ruined they should be destroyed anyway.

There are also old copies of better guns that probably cost a few dollars in the early 20th century, that are not valuable and expensive to fix if broken. I have had many brought to me over the years and I have suggested the "buybacks", especially when the guns are unsafe.



Si vis pacem para bellum

follow me @DiscipleofJMB - GO PENS!