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Nearly Bankrupt LA Pays People to Turn in Their Guns
Over the weekend, the Los Angeles Police Department held a gun buy back and paid people $100-$200 in gift cards as an incentive to participate. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa called the buy back a way to fight crime although criminals do not participate in buy back programs. From Reuters:
Police officers handed out $200 grocery store gift cards to people who turned in an automatic weapon, and $100 gift cards to those who provided a handgun, rifle or shotgun.
Los Angeles has held an annual gun buyback since 2009, and similar events have been organized in years past in several other cities, including Detroit and Boston. Police in San Diego had a buyback earlier this month.
Some experts say the buybacks have little effect in reducing gun violence, but Villaraigosa touted the buyback program as one step that can be taken in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 14 that claimed the lives of 20 children and six adult staff members.
At last count, the Los Angeles gun buyback had collected 1,366 firearms, including 477 handguns and 49 assault weapons, said Vicki Curry, a spokeswoman for the mayor.
First off, Reuters mischaracterized the kind of weapons being bought back. Automatic weapons were not turned in, but semi-automatic weapons were. Not to mention, law abiding citizens owning firearms isn’t the same thing as “having guns on the street.” Second, LA taxpayers forked over more than $140,000 for this program in gift cards despite being on the verge of bankruptcy.
Stirrin the B.S.
December 28th, 2012
Aside from the idiocy of buying back guns with money that the city doesn’t have, I’d like to know how many of those guns were stolen for the sole purpose of obtaining a $200 gift card?
Diann
December 28th, 2012
At this point, the earthquake that that threatens to send California sinking into the Pacific can’t come soon enough.
Tim
December 28th, 2012
Gee, maybe they’re on the verge of bankruptcy because they do stupid shit with the taxpayer’s money?
tenmegaton
December 28th, 2012
And the guns promptly sent south of the border.
NCO77
December 28th, 2012
In a related store, police report that nearly 1366 guns were stolen from area homes over the weekend.
eternal cracker p
December 28th, 2012
Sounds like a good way to make some money. Buy up the plastic guns at Wal-Mart, break off the orange tip at the end of the barrel and instantly you have a real gun that is ready for trade. The progressives have laws that distinguish toy from real and this little orange plastic tip is on the law books indicating the gun is a toy, once removed it is no longer identified as a toy.
Amazing how some of the most heavily taxed areas are those areas facing bankruptcy. The only solution, progtards: your taxes aren’t high enough!!! RAISE THEM MORE!!!!!
Unruly Refugee
December 28th, 2012
Progressiveness: An incurable disease that produces very strong desires to strengthen any person who may want to kill you, and at the same time weaken all those who might keep you safe.
really enraged
December 28th, 2012
“Life’s tough. It’s even tougher if you’re stupid” Sgt. Stryker
Dr. Tar
December 28th, 2012
If you read the rest of the article the author has their city bureaucrats stating that the pending bankruptcy will force them to make lay offs – including law enforcement. So how many police officers could have stayed on the streets if they hadn’t wasted $140,000 on a useless feel good (and great headline) program like this?
The stupidity of prog pols and the people who elect them defies understanding at times. The city officials need a guided tour of Detroit in order to better prepare for their future.
Stranded in Sonoma
December 28th, 2012
@Dr. Tar — Are you kidding? They would admire the devastated wasteland that is Detroit and have a group orgasm at the progressive success all around them.
ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ
December 28th, 2012
A crummy $100 for an AR-15 or AK-74?
Thanks to the progtards these babies are now being sold for $3,000 on the market
Stranded in Sonoma
December 28th, 2012
Sell the old outdated gun to the schmucks at city hall and buy a new pistol with the tax refund in a few months.
BWAHAhahahahahahaha!
F.D.R. in Hell
December 28th, 2012
Paint the flash suppressor orange…voila! A toy.
serfer62
December 28th, 2012
As a convience I am aiding the LAPD by accepting all operational guns & paying with CASH. Send to
87-1340 Farrington Hwy
PS the $140 spent on buy backs would only fund ONE cop for one year
Dr. Tar
December 28th, 2012
@serfer62 so are the taxpayers of L.A. better served having the local gov. buy old, outdated, often nonfunctioning guns or by having one more police officer patroling the streets during the next year?
Maudie N Mandeville
December 28th, 2012
Hundreds of gun owners in one location, some with AUTOMATIC WEAPONS and HUMONGOUS CALIBERS and nothing happened? How many white Christian Republican NRA members are there in Smell-A, anyway?
imtorqued
December 28th, 2012
Typical regressive commiecrats. It’s a proven fact their BS buyout programs don’t do a damn thing to stop violent crime, but they do it anyway because it’s “one step” that can be taken to politicize a mass murder.
Skorpion
December 28th, 2012
I’ve always wondered how many of the guns turned in at these feel-good non-events are “hot” pieces used in gang murders or holdups that would have otherwise ended up on lake or sea bottoms?
serfer62
December 28th, 2012
Dr Tar, one or a hundred will make NO differance…its LA!
TacobellgivesmeDiareiah
December 28th, 2012
Like I
TacobellgivesmeDiareiah
December 28th, 2012
(cont)am going to turn in a $20,000 machine gun for a $200 grocery gift card.