From: alane@microsoft.com (Alan Ezekiel)
Subject: Follow-up: the Seattle buy-back program
Date: 03 Sep 92 01:05:35 GMT
Organization: Microsoft Corporation

Several weeks ago, I posted a news article about an upcoming gun buy-back
program here in Seattle.  Yesterday was the first day of the buy-back, so
the Post-Intelligencer naturally wrote an article about it.  I am posting
this article (below) for your information.

Note that, according to their own recent editorial position statement,
the Seattle Post-Intelligencer supports gun control legislation.

                               -- Alane --
   /-----------------------------------------------------------------\
  /   NOBODY shares my opinions,    |    "I am a jelly doughnut"      \
 /    especially not my employer    |    -- President John F Kennedy   \
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(Reproduced without permission from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer,
 September 2, 1992, front page.)


          BUY-BACK NETS 200 HANDGUNS IN FIRST DAY

            By Michael A. Barber, P-I Reporter


At the West Precinct yesterday morning, two elderly women shakily pulled
a gun on police sitting behind the desk.

Instead of flinching, the officers disarmed the women an awarded them $50
for their trouble.

The two women were the first through the door at the station at 610 Third
Avenue downtown to participate in Seattle's two-week gun buy-back program.

They set the tone for the program's first day, in which more adults than
youths traveled to the city's four police precincts to take advantage of
the chance to anonymously turn in weapons.

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.

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.

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

At the West Precinct, a 26-year-old man, who declined to be named, said
he turned in his .25-caliber semi-automatic because he outgrew the need
to keep a handgun in the house.

"I don't want it, it's not worth having.  I got it in a cheap, easy deal
when I was younger, but I don't need it now that I'm older and have kids
in the house," the man said.

"I could sell it (to a dealer or a pawn shop) but I just wanted to keep
it out of another's hands.  I'm getting more for it (with the $50) than
I paid for it years ago," he said.


   PHOTO:   A pile of ziploc baggies (at least six), each containing a
            firearm and an official police form.  Foreground baggie
            contains clean-looking revolver.

   CAPTION: "This 32-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver was among the
             handguns turned in at the East Precinct station yesterday
             in the buy-back program."


Officer Christi Batdorf said she was heartened by a father who turned in
his gun.  Accompanied by his 9-year-old son, the father explained not
only each step of the process, but encouraged the boy to trust police,
she said.

And not everyone wants the money.  Although rifles are not being accepted
under the program, one man turned one in anyway for free, saying he just
wanted it out of his house.

The problem, however, is that even though the program is on target to
collect its goal of 2,000 guns, as of yesterday it only had enough money
for 400, said Kaye Godefroy of the Seattle Neighborhood Group, a citizens
crime prevention program.

The group had hoped to collect $100,000 in donations by Sept. 1, but only
has $20,000 cash of the $50,000 pledged.  James Kelly, president of Stop
The Violence, was out yesterday still trying to appeal for corporate
donations, Godefroy said.

"We're hoping to get more in every day.  We really need people to get
serious.  If they donate tomorrow we can issue a voucher tomorrow," she
said.  Vouchers are exchanged for $50 at any branch of First Interstate
Bank.

Godefroy said that she is not surprised that more adults than youths
turned in guns.

"We knew there weould be young people who felt a gun was so important
that they would not turn it in," she said.

"Even with adults turning them in means there is one less gun around the
house," she said.

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.

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.

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

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.

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."

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Xref: sparky talk.politics.guns:20494 talk.abortion:34650