From: hays@ssd.intel.com (Kirk Hays)
Subject: Re: Follow-up: the Seattle buy-back program
Organization: Intel Supercomputer Systems Division
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 18:09:13 GMT

In article <1992Sep03.010535.19980@microsoft.com>, alane@microsoft.com (Alan Ezekiel) writes:

|> At the close of the 8 a.m.-to-6 p.m. collection period yesterday, more
|> than 200 handguns had been bought for $50 each.  North Precinct and South
|> Precinct each collected more than 60 of them.

Heard on the news this morning that they'd run out of money at 350 guns, and that
no more money was being offered, despite the media attention.

|> Sponsored by Stop The Violence, a coalition of neighborhood groups and
|> businesses, the program has set a goal of collecting 2,000 handguns or
|> modified weapons, such as sawed off shotguns, by Sept. 15.

They're not going to make it.

|> Kelly, while excited about yesterday's turnout, said he will ask the
|> police department to extend the turn-in period to 24 hours a day.  "A
|> lot of the youth, gang members, whoever, won't come out during broad
|> daylight," he said.

Gee, that's a nice, prejudiced attitude.

Anybody else see a conflict between:

|> Police at each of the stations are accepting the guns with no questions
|> asked.

and:

|> Under the program, police are only collecting the guns and checking their
|> numbers to see if they are stolen.  Prosecutors have offered amnesty
|> against prosecution for carrying stolen weapons, or for carrying them
|> illegally.  However, felonies like assault or robbery in which the guns
|> may have been used are not excused under the amnesty offer.

They're not going to ask any questions, just make you wait for your voucher while
they run the serial number on the gun.

*Then* they'll arrest your butt.

|> The guns will be melted down and cast into a statue or memorial for young
|> people who have been killed by guns.

A statue that stops at mid-thigh will be quite impressive, I'm sure.

|> Physicians at Harborview Medical Center's Injury Prevention and Research
|> Center are conducting the first study in the nation to gauge the
|> effectiveness of buy-back programs.  They included a survey sheet to be
|> completed voluntarily and anonymously when the guns are turned in.

Perfect.  JAMA and NEJM are probably engaged in a bidding war right now.

As a SWAG, there are probably 500,000 guns in the Seattle area - 2,000 of them is
0.4% of the guns.  The .07% they've actually collected is sure to make a big dent
on the before/after crime statistics.

|> On 36-year-old man wrote on a survey sheet that he turned in a gun because
|> "I did not want to be involved with guns anymore and I am afraid someone
|> in my house might get hurt."

"and I'm not smart enough to take care of the problems and get some training, nor
figure out that I'd get more than $50 for it at a gunshop, pawnshop, or gun show."

I wish some gun dealer'd set up shop outside these buy-backs, and offer people
$55 for the good guns.

That'd put a knot in the gun controllers shorts.

-- 
Kirk Hays - NRA Life.
Start your day with a little civil disobedience.  Call BATF at 1-800-ATF-GUNS or
1-800-RUN-GUNS, tell them what you think of gun grabbers and government employees
that encourage people to narc on their neighbors.  Good for the soul.
Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns