nothin Gun “Buy-Back” Comes To Alderwoman’s Door | New Haven Independent

Cops Buy Back” 60 Guns

Thomas MacMillan Photo

Claudette Robinson-Thorpe stepped out her front door on Norton Street and found a young man waiting with a present — a small revolver wrapped in a white paper towel. It would become one of 60 turned into police on buy-back” Saturday.

The man told Robinson-Thorpe (pictured) that he wanted to get rid of the gun. Would you take it to the cops? he asked Robinson-Thorpe.

Why don’t you take it yourself? she asked him. The police department was running an all-day gun buy-back program Saturday.

I don’t trust the police,” the man told her.

That’s the story behind the recovery of one of 60 guns police took in on Saturday during the buy-back. Cops received guns until 4 p.m. at the police training academy on Sherman Avenue. People who handed over pistols were given $50 gift cards to Stop & Shop or Walmart. Rifles earned $100 gift cards.

The day’s haul (pictured) included 34 handguns and 26 long guns, including three sawed-off shotguns. Two fully automatic assault rifles and an Uzi were also in the mix.

One person from Seymour brought in seven of the guns, said Pina Violano, Yale-New Haven Hospital’s injury prevention coordinator, who was helping with the buy-back.

Removing the guns means they won’t be stolen from people’s homes or otherwise end up on the street to float from one criminal activity to another,” Hartman said.

Police gave out over $2,400 in gift cards, said police spokesman Officer Dave Hartman. The Stop & Shop gift cards were the first to go.

The guns will be test-fired for forensic analysis to see if they are connected with any open investigations and then destroyed, said Hartman at 4:15 p.m.

Earlier in the day, Robinson-Thorpe recounted her own gun recovery tale.

He kind of scared me at first,” she said of the young man who approached her when she left her house that morning. I thought he was going to rob me.”

He looked to be between 18 and 21, wearing a do-rag. He asked her if she was the local alderman. She said yes, cautiously.

I have a gun I want to give back,” he said.

Robinson-Thorpe agreed to take the gun for him. She asked him if he wanted the gift card. He said no.

I really just want to get it out of my house,” he said.

Robison-Thorpe kept the gun in her car and called the mayor, who she said called the chief and arranged to have an officer come collect it from her.

The alderwoman said she was concerned by the fact that the man didn’t want to go to the police himself. He told her he we was worried they would take his name and try to pin a charge on him somehow, she said.

That’s a troubling sign of miscommunication and mistrust between the cops and community, Robinson-Thorpe said.

She said the police officer who collected the gun from her asked for her name and address. She said she was intimidated by the interaction.

Officer Hartman (pictured) said the request for Robinson-Thorpe’s personal information must have just been a misunderstanding on the part of the officer. He said guns were collected completely anonymously at the police academy. People were invited to take an optional survey about why they were getting rid of the gun, but the questions were completely generic and not designed to capture any identifying information, Hartman said.

No one declined to take the survey, said Violano.

We can’t force people to trust us,” Hartman said.

Bond, James Bond

Assistant Chief Tobin Hensgen gave a tour of the haul. He pointed out an AK-47, the worlds most prolific military weapon,” he said.

He touched a military prototype rifle, designed to be disassembled and folded into the plastic gun stock, which floats.

He picked up a Baretta 418, James Bond’s sidearm of choice until his higher-ups forced him to switch to a Walther PPK in Dr. No.” 

Hensgen showed off an Enfield rifle, a model that he said was used in the Civil War by both sides. He picked up a modified rifle with the insignia of the Japanese army, and rusted double-barrel gun that had a police shield on the butt of the grip.

Finally, he picked up a tiny silver pistol that turned out to be a cap gun. The person who turned that one in didn’t earn a gift card, he said.

Velleca: It Works

Meanwhile, in response to media inquiries this week about whether gun buy-backs succeed in taming violence, Assistant Police Chief John Velleca crafted this response:

As crime in the city continues to trend downward, we cannot deny the increase in gun violence. After holistically analyzing gun violence in the city this year, we know that the majority of these incidents are perpetrated by convicted felons who continue to re-offend. We also know that these offenders are a very small percentage of the New Haven population. … It appears that you are asking if there is a nexus between gun ownership and lethal violence (murder). And the simple answer to that: yes. The following is part of my research regarding that connection:

A society’s aggregate desire to commit murder depends on social factors, but its ability and feasibility to commit murder are heightened by widespread gun availability. There is a clear correlation between the murder rate and gun ownership, especially handgun ownership. Most gun owners claim they buy guns for protection, but it appears that the problem (murder) and the solution (gun deterrence) are one and the same: 70% of all murders are committed with guns. The FBI deems only 1% of all murders to be justifiable homicides” using a firearm. Statistics from the nation’s largest crime survey also show that a gun is 19 times more likely to be used in nonfatal crime than in nonfatal self-defense.

Committing murder is a surprisingly difficult task. However, weapons with the greatest ability to kill will do so in a higher percentage of attempts. Among common weapons, guns are unmatched for their killing ability. The heightened ability of guns has important implications for murder. When people experience a murderous impulse, they may attack no matter what the situation, and with whatever weapon is handy. Although they may attack with the same degree of ferocity and blind passion, a knife attack will probably result in injury, a gun attack in death. Thus, enhanced ability alone will drive up the murder rate.

Also, a person might have both the desire and the weapon needed to kill, but if the circumstances don’t offer a feasible opportunity to carry it out, then a person will probably decide against it. With weapons like knives or clubs, a would-be murderer faces enormous personal risk. For example, getting closer to the victim reduces the odds of surprise, secrecy or anonymity and the intended victim might be stronger than anticipated. If a struggle ensues, the murderer might be seriously wounded or even killed. Inevitably, the struggle will leave a degree of physical evidence, and the intended victim might survive and testify against their assailant. A gun, however, dramatically reduces all these risks. Guns allow people to kill larger and stronger victims from afar, while maintaining a much greater element of surprise, secrecy and anonymity. Guns also frighten away people who might otherwise help. And most importantly, guns allow a murderer to assume almost no risk of injury from personal struggle and leave limited physical evidence. Simply stated, guns make it more feasible for a would-be killer to act out his murderous impulses. Gun possession allows a crime to occur that possibly wouldn’t have otherwise. Thus, many people suggest gun control as a solution to high murder rates. It should be noted that there is already a broad spectrum of gun control regulations, ranging from licensing laws to the total banning of all guns. However, gun control only reduces the ability and feasibility to commit murder, it does not limit desire. It is the interplay between these three components where the debate becomes complex.

A review of scientific literature (R.L. Ohsfeldt and M.A. Morrisey, Firearms, firearm injury and gun control: a critical survey of the literature,” Advances in Health Economics and Health Services Research 13, pp. 65 – 82, 1992) found that gun density is positively associated with the murder rate. The National Institute of Justice (Jeffrey A. Roth, Firearms and Violence,” NIJ Research in Brief, February 1994) for example, reports a study of U.S. cities which found a positive correlation between gun ownership levels and felony gun use and felony murder. The NIJ report also says: Greater gun availability increases the rates of murder and felony gun use, but does not appear to affect general violence levels. In other words, we generally have a constant level of violence in our society, but guns allow a greater portion of that violence to become deadly. The fact that the United States is a violent society does not have much to do with guns. The fact that our violent crime is so deadly has much to do with guns.” This coheres with the above philosophy that only a certain percentage of the population experiences the impulse to commit murder, and is prevented only by its lack of ability and feasibility.

The general correlation between the murder rate and the ownership of guns, especially handguns, is clear. Only 1% of all murders are considered by the FBI to be justifiable homicide by firearm. Self-defense might be the intention of people who buy guns, but when these weapons actually get used, it’s almost always for murder. The implications of this are fatal to the pro-gun argument, because people’s intentions are irrelevant. The only thing that matters is how these guns are actually used. If they are used mostly for murder, with little deterrence effect, then the arrow of causality runs from gun availability to murder. The evidence suggests that better gun control doesn’t necessarily reduce violence, but a broad-based approach tends to reduce homicide in general. The gun buy-back program is part of that broad-based approach.”

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