Guns.com: History Reveals the Stupidity of Gun Buyback Programs
A nice timeline of the failure of gun buybacks.
Via Guns.com:
When anti-gun laws fail to gain ground, gun grabbers have to get creative and try new tactics to rid the world of guns. One of the most idiotic techniques is gun buyback programs—that is, paying people to give up their guns.
Gun buyback programs first gained steam in the US after Australia responded to its 1996 Port Arthur mass shooting with a large-scale compensated confiscation program. Authorities paid civilians to relinquish their self-loading rifles, self-loading shotguns, and pump-action shotguns. The seizure included around 650,000 firearms.
Less guns floating around meant less crime, right? Wrong.
As Reason.com reports, “Suicide rates did not fall. Homicides continued a modest decline; taking into account the one-time effect of the Port Arthur massacre itself, the share of murders committed with firearms declined sharply. Other violent crime, such as armed robbery, continued to increase, but again with fewer incidents that involved firearms.” And, to make matters worse, it ended up creating a black market for guns.
Despite the utter failure of this legislation (not to mention the financial cost), anti-gun politicians like Hillary Clinton point to it as a possible solution to America’s gun violence.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced last October that Chicago would pay gun owners $100 each to turn in their guns. If all of the funds are used, this program will cost taxpayers an estimated $250,000. With no evidence pointing to the success of any previous gun buyback programs, it seems like this money might have been better invested in inner city schools or other at-risk programs.
Read more here.
