Los Angeles' gun buyback event to be held today

[UnrepentantLiberal]

Source: Los Angeles Times

The city of Los Angeles is holding its annual gun buyback event at two locations Wednesday in an event that was moved up several months in response to the deadly elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn.

LAPD officials are to be on hand to take back firearms at the L.A. Memorial Sports Arena and the Van Nuys Masonic Temple from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The guns can be turned in anonymously, with no questions asked, officials said.

The city is offering up to $100 in Ralphs gift cards for handguns, shotguns and rifles, and up to $200 in gift cards for assault weapons.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa created the gun buyback program in 2009. So far, it is credited with getting close to 8,000 firearms off the streets.

Read more: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/12/los-angeles-gun-buyback-event.html

[Trunk Monkey]

1. So I can dump evidence with the help of the LAPD AND get paid for it? NT

[lunatica]

2. That's right

These gun buy-backs work. They get a Ralphs gift card. Ralphs doesn't sell guns.

[Remmah2]

4. Gift cards and food stamps can be laundered to buy alcohol and drugs.

nt

[UnrepentantLiberal]

7. That makes sense.

Not.

[Remmah2]

16. This is how it works.

I sell $100 worth of food stamps or gift cards for $50 cash, then I can buy anything I want.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

20. Spin spin spin

The guns are off the street. Who cares what they do with the gift card?

[tblue]

26. Thank you.

What's with the crazy talk. Guns off the street = good!

[nineteen50]

32. and the stupid government thinks

it saves money by issuing food stamps or debit cards. Just send cash and forgo all the overhead and banking fees.

[TheMadMonk]

35. And what's the street price of a gun?

If this isn't at least diluting the suppy of weapons on streets and lying forgotten in cupboards then:

AS SEVERAL THOUSAND PEOPLE HAVE BEEN POINTING OUT FOR FUCKING YEARS:

THERE IS A FUCKING GREAT WIDE OPEN CONDUIT BETWEEN THE SO CALLED LEGITIMATE GUN MARKET AND THE BLACK MARKET.

[lunatica]

11. Yes they can

and many people will do so. What's your point? That these gun buy-backs shouldn't be done because of a few who will use it?

[Remmah2]

15. If the drug dealers, gangs and violent people used the buy backs it would be worth it.

Unfortunatly the gun buy back programs prey on the poor.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

21. Prey on the poor?

They must love you back at the cave.

[Comrade Grumpy]

24. Prey on the poor? Good Lord.

[Floyd_Gondolli]

31. The gun nut will always object to the surrender of firearms

The gun nut wants everyone to have a gun, so it's very depressing to them to see people willfully deciding they no longer want to be part of the gun nut lifestyle.

And yes, these programs work very well, which also upsets the gun nut.

[Trunk Monkey]

9. Please reread my post

If I have a gun used in a crime I can now get rid of it no questions asked (IOW the LAPD is going to help me destroy evidence)and get paid for it?

How, exactly, is this a good thing?

Also FWIW the last time LAPD did this a FFL loaded up every single Jimenez Arms gun he had in stock and turned them all in for more than their actual retail value.

[lunatica]

12. The gun won't be used to commit anymore crimes

If indeed it ever was. Please point out how this is a bad thing.

[slackmaster]

13. The problem with that line of thinking, as I see it, is that it is a missed opportunity to catch...

...a criminal. Someone who is very likely to go on to commit additional crimes, with another gun or without one.

[Trunk Monkey]

14. At best it would be a neutral thing

If the gun hasn't been used in a crime yet there's a good chance it won't be going forward.

But what if some widow brings in a very expensive gun owned by her late husband, a gun whose value she had no idea of , and the LAPD gives her 100 bucks for a 5000$ dollar collector's item, which has happened BTW.

Do you think that's fair?

[TheMadMonk]

36. Since a person can destroy selfsame evidence without...

...assistance of LAPD it all comes down to the $100. And anyone stupid enough to hang onto a hot gun just for buyback is probably stupid enough to get themselves caught some other way.

[Remmah2]

3. I've always wondered if the cops skimmed a few of the prime buybacks for personal use?

No paperwork and a free pass on the way in. No 4473's.

[Trunk Monkey]

5. There's no doubt in my mind that they do NT

[Comrade Grumpy]

25. You guys make the perfect tag team, but...

...I really don't understand why you hate gun buybacks. No one is making anyone do anything. It's voluntary.

[Trunk Monkey]

28. Buy back hate

I don’t know that I “hate” gun buy backs (how can you buy something back that was never yours to begin with?) but I don’t really see the point either. I do take issue with the fact that a criminal can dispose of a gun used in a crime and get paid for it though. I’d also like to see them be a little more fair when someone shows up with a collector’s item gun (say a Colt’s Python) and instead of handing them the 100$ dollar gift card without saying a word having an actually licensed firearm dealer on site to tell the person the actual value of the gun and give them a chance to sell it for what it’s really worth.

[Remmah2]

30. Is it voluntary if it's a con job?

Just asking.

[slackmaster]

6. That's exactly right. Why dump it in McArthur Park Lake when the cops will give you cash for it?

Or fabulous prizes?

[UnrepentantLiberal]

8. That makes sense.

Not.

[AtheistCrusader]

17. Why does it not make sense?

The 'no questions asked' nature of these buybacks certainly allows for it, even if you don't believe it encourages it, right?

[UnrepentantLiberal]

22. What does it matter how they get rid of the gun?

[AtheistCrusader]

23. Because it's a way of destroying evidence.

Filed off serial numbers can often be raised. Discarded guns in fields or trash cans, or you name it, can be ballistic fingerprinted and tested to see if they were used in crimes, and maybe tie some evidence to a person, following the chain of ownership of the weapon, etc.

If you turn in a gun to the police buy-back program, it gets cut in half and destroyed, usually melted down. No questions are asked. No serial numbers checked. No barrels fingerprinted. Etc.


You essentially have a foolproof way to dispose of a gun that was either stolen, or even used in a crime, in a manner that severs any evidence link between the person and the gun.

That seems, at the least, incredibly risky to me.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

33. They could just as easily bury it somewhere.

[AtheistCrusader]

34. If it was ever found for any reason

then the process begins. Ballistic print, match any crimes? Find the manufacture's sales records. What retailer took it in shipment. Who bought it. Find that person. How did the gun move to a new owner, was it stolen, did that theft have any evidence that might expose the person responsible... etc.

Weapons are found like that all the time.


Go to a buyback program, get a 100 gift card, and the gun is destroyed in a foundry...

[ProgressiveProfessor]

10. They might have better results if they offered more realistic $$$

It would need to be about 5X more

[ywcachieve]

18. WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!

''Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa created the gun buyback program in 2009. So far, it is credited with getting close to 8,000 firearms off the streets.''

[slackmaster]

19. The LAPD finds several hundred per year, mostly handguns, that were apparently ditched

About 200 from just one urban park lake.

[xchrom]

27. Good. Nt

[Recursion]

29. I like these programs as stimulus

From a policy standpoint, I don't know how much good they do, but certainly they do no harm.