This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Wednesday, January 17, 2018:
Former Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie
After all, they don't work. They are fraudulent from the very beginning, implying that a government is merely buying back firearms from private citizens that it initially sold to them. But still the failed “experiments” in reducing gun violence continue.
They lack logic. Criminals seeking to rid themselves of an offending weapon aren't likely to show up at a police station or other public place, relying on the promise that there will be “no questions asked.” Not when a much easier alternative exists: toss it into the river.
Studies showing their failure to reduce crime don't impress anti-gun politicians. The first gun buy-back program in the United States happened in Baltimore, Maryland in 1974. It was considered a failure when, during the program's two-month existence, gun violence and assaults actually increased. But no matter. History is littered with failed examples of politicians enacting such programs. When a study was completed in 1992 following a buyback in Seattle that the “effect on decreasing violent crime and reducing firearm mortality is unknown,” it was ignored.
Buyback programs continue in New Jersey. A program in Camden in 2012 netted 1,137 firearms while Newark collected more than 200 in 2013. That same year, Essex County collected about 1,700 firearms in a buyback scheme. Last summer, about 4,700 firearms were turned in during a buyback program encompassing Camden, Trenton, and Newark. That particular program set taxpayers back half a million dollars. But New Jersey's Attorney General Christopher Porrino said it was worth it even if it was unlikely to have any impact on gun violence: “To think that we're going to have a gun buyback and this is going to end gun crime in New Jersey is naïve.” But they went ahead with the program anyway, adding, “It's one tool in the tool box and right now we have every tool out and we're using them all.”
Now comes a new Governor (another wealthy former Goldman Sachs banker, just like former New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine), and another opportunity to inflict another worthless buyback program onto New Jersey's hapless and ignorant citizens. A bill headed to anti-gun Governor Phil Murphy's desk will institute a statewide program of gun buybacks. The bill requires the state's attorney general to conduct “at least three” such programs every year, funded of course with $2 million of taxpayer monies. The bill's sponsor, anti-gun Democrat Linda Bernstein, says that such expensive foolishness is very important: “There's nothing more important. If guns are hanging around the street, they're going to fall into the wrong hands for sure, and we want to get as many of them off the street as we can.” She wants the AG to hold nine programs every year. The new anti-gun Governor is likely to agree.
Greenstein's message is clear: guns are evil, gun owners are bad people, and firearms seem to “hang around the street” in vast numbers, implying that criminals can easily pick them up and use them to commit gun violence.
The reality is that gun buyback programs are fraudulent and worthless in reducing crime. Even the name is deceitful: it implies that the government is buying back guns that it originally owned. Instead it is offering taxpayer-funded incentives to lawful gun owners (criminals don't apply) to offload worthless relics that have been collecting dust in their attics for years. It also gives newcomers to New Jersey a welcome opportunity to unload firearms that they owned but which turned them into criminals immediately thanks to New Jersey's draconian anti-gun owner laws. They don't want to become another “test case” for the governor's generosity, like Shaneen Allen, a Pennsylvania resident who spent months in jail for violating the state's law prior to being pardoned by Governor Christie. New Jersey's new governor, Phil Murphy, who took office on Tuesday, is likely to be far less forgiving.
So what's the problem? Let anti-gun pols offer worthless and ineffective programs like these. After all it keeps them busy and away from enacting much more dangerous laws. The problem is this: as these new buyback programs scheduled for New Jersey fail, their failure will be blamed on their voluntary nature. For anti-gunners like Greenstein, the next step is clear: make them mandatory.
Just because gun buyback programs appear to be benign doesn't mean they aren't dangerous to precious liberties.
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Sources:
Loadoutroom.com: New Jersey Gun Buyback or Dud?
BulletsFirst.net: NJ Moves To Make Gun Buyback Events MANDATORY
Guns.com: New Jersey lawmakers send bump stock ban, ‘buyback' plan to Christie for signature
History of Gun buyback programs
“How Many People In New Jersey Own A Gun?” About three million.
BearingArms.com: New Jersey Collected HOW MANY Guns in its Recent Buyback Program?
The New York Times: Phil Murphy Is Elected Governor of New Jersey, in a Lift for Democrats
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