Gun Buyback Programs Too Successful/Not Successful at All

Local law enforcement organized a program to purchase unwanted guns and get them off the streets, but the program attracted more attention than they expected.

The city had promised $200 in exchange for pistols, shotguns and rifles and $300 in exchange for assault-style weapons.

An TV station in Indiana reports that its gun buyback program is wildly successful, except they left out the contextual part of the report that shows that most gun buyback programs aren’t successful. From a 2004 report from the National Academies of Sciences:

“The guns typically surrendered in gun buy-backs are those that are least likely to be used in criminal activities,” the report says. “Old, malfunctioning guns whose resale value is less than the reward offered in buy-back programs or guns owned by individuals who derive little value from the possession of guns (e.g. those who have inherited guns).”

Also, the Congressional Research Service estimates that there are 310 million firearms in the U.S. (“about one for every U.S. resident”), so law enforcement programs would have to buy back a huge amount of guns to actually make it effective. [via]

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