what is the gun buy back program and is it a good idea?

Answer 1

The Gun Buy back program will let anyone come to a designated area and bring a gun and whoever is putting the program on will "Buy back" the gun with no questions asked. I dont know if it is a good idea. It gets guns off the streets, but the criminals arent going to give their guns back for money. Also I would imagine people bringing old, un-usable guns and getting money for worthless guns.

Answer 2

The Gun buy back program is where the cops buy people's guns to get them off the street, with no questions asked. Of course they could run them against ballistics to see if they can clear an old case, but they usually don't keep track of who turned in the gun. Most people won't even give them a first name. The police are just happy to get them off the street. Often the funding is raised in a special community fund drive or through a program with the city paying part of it. Almost always the program is a community effort.

The program works because it takes guns off the streets, when it is run in a high crime area. Sure a lot of people will just buy more guns later, but the police aren't buying back the guns at high enough prices so the gun dealers can make a profit that way.

After the guns are collected they are typically melted down into scrape metal. One plot that Hollywood has used more than once (Lethal Weapon IV) is when a corrupt cop steals the bought back guns and then sells them on the street again. They are found out because when those guns start to surface they are checked against the serial numbers of the guns collected by the police, including those guns that were supposed to be destroyed.

The program only works in high crime areas, especially areas with a lot of gang activity. The professional gun dealers, gunrunners, and criminals ignore the program. If you ran the program in a rural area you might get some guns, but you wouldn't be getting many from people who plan to use them to kill or rob. That is more common in the gang infested big city areas. In fact the program usually only targets gang areas. It is a program that has been used several times and for at least 20 years. It has met with success, but only limited success. It is a good idea, it is just hard to get the potential criminals turn in their guns.

Answer 3

Not really. I wish my area would do that. It's like when they buy up old junker cars to get them off the road, haha. It's still accomplishing the same thing. Reducing the volume of guns out there, while not restricting the responsible owner's rights. You only need one, and a good one is better than junk ones. If there were a break-in they would still only get the one, as opposed to several. I say go for it.

Answer 4

Gun buy back programs allow criminals to take broken, incomplete, and stolen guns to the collection point, where they are paid money to go steal more guns to turn in, for more money, To either go and buy a functioning gun or some crack with.
They are a pretty stupid idea.
Like I say, they encourage criminals to steal guns from law abiding gun owners, by paying them for doing so.
Are these stolen guns returned to their owners?
why, no.
Are they destroyed?
The rusty, broken and incomplete ones are, sure.
The nice stolen ones?
They usually wind up in some "law abiding" COP's trunk, to become part of their OWN collection.
At about 10% of what the legitimate owner had to pay for them so that a police program could use tax money to encourage a criminal to steal them?
GET IT?
Gun buy back programs encourage crime, period.

Answer 5

The gun buy-back program is usually set up in communities with a history of violent crime. As an idea (and in practice) it is an ineffective joke because criminals sell their broken or old guns and keep their latest & greatest firepower. It solves nothing. A good idea is to allow responsible law-abiding citizens access to concealed carry handgun permits. I've had one since 1994.

Answer 6

No, I don't think its a good idea. As other people have said, it just gets the stolen, crappy guns off the street. Typically, the program pays you 50 dollars (roughly) for the firearm. They don't check your name. They MIGHT check to see if the firearm was used in a crime. But what's really bad, they don't check to see if the firearm was stolen from someone and if it was, return it to them. If someone stole my car and it was turned in under an amnesty, you'd assume the police would return it to you. But not only does the criminal get away, you don't get your lawful property back.

Answer 7

Anybody who thinks a criminal is going to turn in his illegal gun for a little bit of money is a fool. It's a PR stunt so the police and mayor can say they are doing "something". Usually the guns sold at these things are pretty crappy to begin with, like hi-points and ravens.

Answer 8

Cheney wants to buy a gun to take Bush hunting

Answer 9

In some cities the police dept. will buy back handguns from people that want to turn them in. It works by keeping illegal guns off the street. It has helped to lower crime in some major cities.

Answer 10

Sure, it gives the scumbags with junk guns the opportunity to sell them, and use the money towards that new AK47 or Mac10.