Brian Skoloff/Associated Press - FILE - This Jan. 2013 file photo shows Tucson police officers cataloging a gun gun buyback program outside a police station in Tucson, Ariz. Arizona is now a step away from essentially doing away with the programs with lawmakers approving a bill that would ban cities from destroying the weapons and require them to sell the guns _ part of a broader movement among gun-rights lawmakers to limit gun buybacks.
The Washington Post
The months since the deadly Connecticut school shooting have seen dozens of gun buyback events across the country, with officials getting thousands of unwanted firearms off the street and sending them off to their destruction.
In Arizona, however, the Republican-controlled Legislature is now moving to save such guns.
Prompted by a gun buyback event in January in Tucson, where a 2011 shooting rampage left six dead and wounded then-U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 12 others, GOP lawmakers crafted a bill that would require local agencies to sell the firearms to gun dealers. The bill, which has passed both chambers of the Legislature, tightens a 2010 law that requires police to sell seized weapons.
Kurt the Superman pointed out this story to me yesterday. It's ironic because he and others have repeatedly told us that the guns received in buyback programs are mostly useless, broken down junk. Arizona doesn't seem to agree.
My opinion on this is, although it feeds into a sick cycle of re-routing guns into the criminal world, since proper gun control laws are lacking which would prevent that, I'm not really opposed. As our pro-gun friends keep reminding us, guns are inanimate objects and therefore neither good nor bad. Selling the turned-in guns to licensed gun dealers would at least make the buyback programs pay for themselves, which is another complaint we often hear.
What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.
