The Illinois gun rights organization Guns Save Life decided to use the Chicago Police Department’s gun buyback program against them but donating junk guns and raising money for a youth camp that teaches children how to safely use firearms. Needless to say the gun control zealots were not amused and as always they have resorted to emotional pleas to demonize gun rights activists. As is standard for gun control zealots the argument being made by the author was nonsensical:
The group, Guns Save Life, based in Champaign County, said they’d use the gift cards to buy ammunition and firearms for a youth program that teaches gun safety and marksmanship.
Clever, huh?
While in town, though, we have to wonder if the pro-gun group happened to read about Heaven, the 7-year-old girl who was killed last Wednesday by goofs with guns who shot into a crowd outside her mother’s house. And we have to wonder if they happened to catch the news about the eight other people killed over the weekend, including a 3-year-old boy, and the 17 who were wounded — all shot by people with guns.
What’s interesting about this is how the Chicago Police perform their gun buyback program. When you bring a gun in the Chicago Police Department gives you a gift card and no questions are asked or records kept. After the event concludes the collected guns are destroyed, not submitted to forensics to determine if any of the firearms were used in a crime. The gun buyback is one of the most effective means of evidence destruction available to a criminal in Chicago. Because of the gun buyback program the perpetrators of the shootings mentioned in the article could have easily handed in the murder tool and got the Chicago Police Department to destroy the evidence.
Gun buyback programs, like every program conjured up by gun control zealots, are poorly thought out and thus come with numerous unintended consequences attached. The author then makes another interesting statement:
To mock those efforts, even as one might disagree with them, is offensive. Our children lie dead in the morgue.
What is more offensive, exploiting a poorly implement program in order to teach children how to safely use firearms or having the police destroy evidence in murder cases? To me the latter is extremely offensive because it prevents the perpetrators of the crimes mentioned by the author from being prosecuted.
A tip of the hat goes to Days of our Trailers for this demonstration of gun control zealot idiocy.
I would argue that the gun camp will save more lives than the gun buyback. The buyback will only be used to dispose of evidence or for old peaceful people to dispose of guns (and get ripped off in the process). No criminal will turn in his gun (unless he wants to destroy evidence). Now consider the camp, the kids will learn proper gun safety and handling reducing the risk in the future of deaths due to gun negligence, additionally being properly trained with firearms from a young age may put them in a position in the future when they are older to save lives from criminals with the use of firearms.
you know I wonder if they record the serial numbers on the guns that are turned in since you must record the destruction of a firearm if it is ATF registered, which is how they get gun shops who have destroyed property and forgot to record it. And then I wonder if people who have had their firearms stolen can get a gun back if it was turned in? Because if not they just made insurance fraud really easy.