Buying Back Guns
Seattle and King County Announce Buyback and Free Trigger Locks
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Given the preemptive authority of state and federal law, there's not much that local officials can do to curb gun violence and promote firearm safety. But in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre and other tragic shootings locally and nationwide, Seattle-area officials are determined to do whatever they can.
At a January 8 press conference at Seattle's Mount Zion Baptist Church, Seattle mayor Mike McGinn, King County executive Dow Constantine, and a host of government and community leaders announced a new Gun Safety Initiative featuring Seattle's first gun buyback program since 1992 and the distribution of free trigger locks and gun safety information. The initiative will be funded entirely through private donations, including $30,000 from online retailer Amazon and $25,000 from the Seattle Police Foundation.
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"This is just one tool in the toolbox" for addressing a broader public health challenge, McGinn emphasized.
"If we can prevent just one child, one innocent bystander, from being the victim of a random accident or the target of an unstable person, it will be well worth our time and effort," added Constantine.
The first gun buyback event will be held on Saturday, January 26, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the parking lot beneath Interstate 5 between Cherry and James Streets. Subsequent events will take place at locations throughout the county.
Modeled on successful programs in Los Angeles and other cities, participants will receive gift cards valued up to $100 for surrendering handguns, rifles, and shotguns, and up to $200 for assault weapons. The no-questions-asked buyback program will be coordinated by the Seattle Police Foundation, a nonprofit that supports local police officers, and the process will be totally anonymous: no pictures will be taken of participants, no license plates will be written down, and no ballistics tests will be conducted on surrendered weapons. Unwanted ammunition will also be collected.
Efforts will be made to return lost or stolen weapons to their rightful owners—the rest will be melted down by Nucor Steel, which is donating its services free of charge.
Critics argue that gun buybacks do little to measurably decrease the total rate of gun violence (though an NRA-sponsored congressional funding ban makes it difficult to study), but even a statistically insignificant impact can be significant to a potential victim. And Kurt Geissel, owner of Seattle's Cafe Racer, where a tragic shooting took place last year, argues that doing anything is better than doing nothing.
"You can do something, even if it's a small thing, whether financially or throwing away some guns or ammo," encourages Geissel. "You never know what might happen." 
Yes and no. No, I don't belive I'd turn anti-gun, but it probably would drive me to spend more time at the range, purchase a more tactical loadout and be rather paranoid around strangers.
I have trouble seeing how those who own, operate and understand firearms would give them up in light of this tragedy. Such an occurance is exactly why I strive to be proficient with the arms I have.
This isn't about our ability to go hunt deer. Nobody needs an assault rifle and $3,000 worth of tactical gear to kill Bambi, but it's damn good to have around when it's your family at risk.
Is the main reason that finding a doable solution for enforcing gun control is so difficult because not everybody has the same definition of "responsible, licensed and registered gun owners"?
I shoot far less often than I did 10 years ago. Why is that? Ammo and especially range time is very expensive out here!
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&sugexp=les%…
When that happens, all of someone's great efforts become focused on the mere appearance of superior intelligence, morality, and ethics. The reality ceases to count, and there are no standards that apply across the board.
That's the tragedy of American politics as we slide toward banana republic status. The Republicans slide toward fascism and nostalgia, and the "progressives" become corrupt Peronists. Our Argentinian future awaits.
Better hang onto your guns. You just might wind up needing 'em for more than plugging a deer or a burglar.
12
Yea, earlier I was accused of "mansplaining" and being deliberately confusing for the terrible crime of attempting to explain how an mechanical object actually worked.
Not much of an incentive anyways. I'd only get up to a 10% return on my assault rifle. Hell, in our current market I could sell at a healthy profit right now.
Wouldn't mind a free trigger lock or two though, heh.
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@8
I would stay away from most trigger locks, they can cause a loaded gun to accidentally discharge, the only safe gun lock is a lock that goes through the action of the firearm.
3
That was 26 years ago, and since then Australia has had ONE mass shooting, in 2002, when 2 were killed and 5 were injured.
from Wikipedia:
The federal government coordinated with all states and territories of Australia to ban and heavily restrict the legal ownership and use of self-loading rifles, self-loading and pump-action shotguns, and heavily tightened controls on their legal use. The government initiated a "buy-back" scheme with the owners paid according to a table of valuations. Some 643,000 firearms were handed in at a cost of $350 million which was funded by a temporary increase in the Medicare levy which raised $500 million.
We are "progressives." This is Seattle. It's all about the appearance of being Good.
However, later figures show that only 2 of 75 "assault weapons" were actually that, and the "rocket launchers" were actually the empty tubes once used to launch rockets, but without any of the parts or rockets needed to do so now.
And one study found that such programs are basically ineffective, since the majority of weapons turned in were either irreparable or unusable for some other reason.
It's just a response by politicians by the media to "DO SOMETHING!".
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