New Haven Independent

Posted by: on whalley | December 11, 2007 3:12 PM

Gun buy-backs put more guns on the street. Also, no buy-back has ever been linked to reducing gun crimes. Third, the people and firearms that the buy-backs are supposed to target do not go to buy-backs. They keep their firearms for their criminal needs. $100 WalMart card is not going to stop a hustler from selling crack nor will it ease his desire to defend his life and turf from others of a like profession.

Buy-backs get old, often inoperable firearms from people who have inherited them for a number of reasons or from hunters and sportsmen who have no desire to sell their firearms and no one to hand them down to.

I'm telling anyone out there who has a firearm they do not want to avoid being ripped off by participating in this scam. Not lessening crime aside I assure you virtually any firearm, working condition or not, is worth more than $100.

If you have a firearm you wish to sell you would be better off contacting a local gun shop (of which there are many) or at the very least contacting an individual knowledgeable enough to give you a ballpark value of you firearm.

Who knows, perhaps upon further understanding of your firearms you will wish to participate in shooting sports or even seek training to carry for defensive purposes.

Posted by: LevelHeadedAndObjective | December 11, 2007 4:49 PM

Amazing comment...so what is your brilliant unbelievably wonderous idea of how to solve gun violence in the city..this city or any other city for that matter...please opine...and if your dubious solution does not have any merit maybe you will consider making a contribution to the cause ...

Posted by: on whalley | December 11, 2007 7:47 PM

@LEVELHEADEDANDOBJECTIVE

First I must say I find it quite ironic you would present yourself with such a "name" then proceed to post such a condescending and insulting comment.

I take it that by assuming any solution I may offer as "dubious" you must believe whole-heartedly in the promise of the gun buy-back to perform duties facts and statistics prove it cannot, will not and has not ever done.

Do you wish to curb gun crime or crime as a whole?
If you're only concern is gun crime then we can sprinkle some magic fairy dust over the Earth to dissolve any and all firearms in existence as well as erase all mechanical and physical knowledge of firearms and the science that allows them to function. Let's say we did just that. We went to sleep tonight in a world of guns and awoke gun free. This would solve your concern of gun violence. Sure, people would go on mugging, raping, robbing, killing and governments and groups would continue to oppress other groups and people would continue to be victimized because of their skin color or age or sexual orientation but none of that matters, right? Gun crime is no more.

The magic disappearance of all things "gun" is just as useless a "feel good" band-aid as this buy-back program is. It solves absolutely none of the problems that actions such as shootings are symptoms of.

Any person of any sense knows that violence and crime cannot be removed from society altogether. Since before man stood upright we've been violent and criminal to some degree.

Guns, themselves, aren't to blame. Firearm ownership is not a new phenomenon to this country but because of many policies fueled by fright firearms are new phenomenon to more and more kids across America. The only exposure many children have to firearms is in movies, video games, music, most of which glorify violence and justify the use of firearms against your fellow man not to preserve one's own life but to impose your will on others. Put the rifle teams back in the schools, bring back the gun clubs, participate in shooting sports, take a kid hunting. In short, return firearms to their rightful place in the home and their rightful level of normalcy they once (still do in most of the nation but living in the Northeast you'd easily forget that) had among families, homes and communities.

Then there's social factors like the destruction of the family unit, subsidies for having children out of wedlock, the ever growing isolation people are experiencing brought on by having their faces perpetually in front of screens and their ears always blocked with headphones.

The one other thing these recent "massacre" shootings have had in common besides all happening in declared "gun-free" zones is that they have all been perpetrated by members of the very demographic that is experiencing the full force of this technology driven isolation. That, and they've all been taking prescription psych meds. Were they depressed before taking their meds? Probably. Were they set to embark on murderous rampages before taking their meds? We'll never know.

There is no simple answer. But take it from Australia and the UK that removing guns from the equation just means something else will fill the gap.

If you read this. If you really care about finding a solution and are not just anti-gun for the sake of being anti-gun why not give this a read: Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy

If your condescending post about my anticipated "dubious" solution is any indication of character, however, I assume you are simply anti-gun for the sake of being anti-gun regardless of how "levelheadedandobjective" you would like to pretend to be.

Posted by: on whalley | December 12, 2007 9:01 AM

One more thing to think about: buy-backs can actually increase firearm theft. Steal all the firearms you want and the police will fence them for you. No questions asked!

I wonder if stolen firearms will send up a flag and get returned to their true owners or will they be sent off to get "destroyed" without any notification to the owner?

Posted by: Edward_H | December 12, 2007 3:20 PM

OnWhalley

I sometimes enjoy reading your comments more than the articles themselves. Keep up the good work

Posted by: East Rock | December 20, 2007 8:09 AM

On Whalley- Great post.

I find it hard to believe that anyone thinks/believes that the crack dealer or the gang bangers (the ones doing the killings) are willing to turn in the tools of their trade for a simple giftcard.