Gun buyback.

Just as I've always said. When you are at the helm of state, or nation or a city and a storm is brewing ahead. Let go of the wheel and let JESUS pilot you through the troubles!

Good fucking shitfaces Christ on a crutch. We are fucked...

This is likely to be as effective as any legislated solution anyway, so why not.

Bruce Harrell is a freaking jackass. Those thugs know only one language - prison. Make the police do their job and fire Harrell. And don't be giving a bunch of phony preachers tax money.

If churches are so much part of the neighborhood, then why isn't their influence greater? What would be different with this initiative and why would gang members listen? Not sure I get the value.

Gun buybacks are a good idea. That being said, this years violence is an anomaly. Regardless, there is nothing that legislation can do to stop the gun violence. If not guns, then other weapons will be used. It is no secret that we are living in a time of very low violence, with less violence than our Earth has ever experienced before.

Guns don't kill people. Legislation doesn't stop people from killing. A gun in my grandma's hand saved her life from a knife wielding attacker, and at that time she was 79 years old, and it was her gun that saved her, and she was in Chicago during the gun ban, when this happened to her. So no, guns aren't in and of themselves a bad thing, we in fact, have our freedom because of guns. No argument can disprove this, because it is a simple fact that guns changed the landscape so a single individual can protect themselves from an attack from a much more powerful and dangerous person, just like my grandma. She swears that she would not be alive today if she wasn't armed on that perilous day...

I suspect a lot of the gang kids come from dysfunctional families--increased psychological and family counseling might help in concert with better educational and career opportunities.

I also think Harrell is a slug for believing the opiate of deity worship will turn these kids around when the religion opiate for many seattle area blacks has been very prevalent to no effect. It's a patronizing ruse to avoid getting at the root causes of the problems.

You do know that the Puyallup Fairgrounds are the site of Washington's (and possibly the Northwest's) largest gun show, right?

http://www.washingtonarmscollectors.org/

Ian Stawicki didn't attend a church in the South End. He wasn't part of "neighborhood culture" (nice euphemism) in the South End. He was an angry loner, but also a law-abiding gun owner of 6 handguns, with the legal right to carry a concealed weapon.

Harrell's stupid idea is lipstick on a pig.

Great. Get the tax freeloaders to do the social work that the state & local governments should be doing. This could never turn into a problem, like a Catholic hospital or private prison chain gangs, could it? Let someone else deal with a problem no one else wants. They couldn't possibly have any ulterior motives.

While I am opposed to involving the church in state matters, I'm willing to take this solution as the lesser of two evils (church involvement vs. do nothing). Plus it will likely cost the state very little, and probably result in action accomplished.

My atheist/pantheist sensibilities rankle, though.

As to the gun return location, you forgot to mention:
.The Stranger offices
.Churches
.at the base of the Fremont Troll
.City Hall
.the I-5 walk-through tunnel

Next thing is the dumb fuck runs for Mayor.

I don't really need to point out that the only people who turn in guns to an anonymous drop-off will be:
A. People with no intention of shooting anyone else, or;
B. Really, really stupid people who already have shot someone and want to get rid of the evidence, and that;
C. Some violent fucker who comes home to find his piece missing is likely to get pretty pissed off and beat the shit out of or kill the mother, girlfriend, etc. that stole it from him.

Do I?

@6 yea, I get so tired of hearing about all those drive-by stabbings in England, with all those innocent bystanders, um, stabbed

I think Harrell's idea is great. Why shouldnt we be looking for people that can actually contect with troubled individuals on the streets? Government has tried stricter laws, and that didnt work. As for those that critique the clergymen for lacking influence, perhaps if they had someone in power providing them resources and funding, their influence would increase.

If it wasn't for the crazy deranged white folks. We would be at about the same rate of murders. Well below the national average. No gun control= no end to gun violence. Maybe we should do outreach to deranged mass killers who for the most part are white.

@16: Yeah, because that's what we need more of: clergymen with power. I'll stick with the guns, thanks. They can only fuck you up in this life rather than the next one too - assuming it exists, of course. And deranged killers have a certain honesty and clarity of purpose so often lacking in churchmen. At least they admit their sole goal is ruining your life.

@9: The Stawicki case was tragic, but I don't think that's what Harrell is trying to address here. Tons of other gun violence has been on the rise this year, and most of it WAS in the south-end, and it's also tragic. It's kind of silly to call out Harrell's south-end "euphemism" if you're only addressing violence that happens in the much-whiter north end.

As for Harrell's plan itself, I'm with @3 here. Just arresting people isn't really doing shit so far, right? But as someone else said already, pouring more resources into family counseling and mental health outreach might be a more effective solution that doesn't involve putting a bunch of guns in a however-well-secured bucket.

What will cease gun violence? Getting these kids better education and jobs. Then they won't need to commit crime in order to get by... Uh, and they'll have an education and a job.

@19: i'm addressing all gun violence. white or "neighborhood", Amoklauf, familycide, random, joy, wounded male pride. All shootings without purpose.

of course Harrell's not trying to address Amoklauf killings. no one can - that's cat's out of the bag, permanently. they can, do, and will happen anywhere, anytime, from now until the end of America. even in the "neighborhood culture" of the south end (i.e. the schizophrenic asian woman who killed her family on Beacon Hill).

pastors won't do shit. the idiots and crazies and hoarders with the guns aren't listening.

I think it's a wonderful idea, provided that:

1.) All the firearms collected are melted down and cast into a 500' statue of The Living Christ, to be located at the top of Capitol Hill.

2.) A fund is created to provide free abortion and sterilization on demand, to be funded by a "birth tax" on anyone born to a family making more than $500k/year.

(I admit it. That last one is there mostly to drive the troll right over the edge)

The mailboxes choice in the slog poll isn't very smart. Postal workers empty those mailboxes. Guns. Postal workers. Ring any bells?