Minneapolis gun buy back sputters
A number of readers sent us links to the story of the gun buy back in Minneapolis last weekend. The city allocated $25,000 for the event and they went through it within a couple of minutes according to witnesses.
I showed up at the E. 38th st. fire station at 12:30. Incompetence is the word of the day. About 15 people with guns in line not moving. The cops said they were out of gift cards and more were on the way. A half dozen guys had been waiting two hours for cards so apparently they only brought enough for a half hour of turn-ins. About 12:45 they said no more cards were coming and we could either sign up to have payment mailed to us or just give up the guns for nothing.
I was at the south location. I got there early and was the third person in line. If that stack of 25 dollar cards was all they had I’m not surprised they ran out, it was probably less than five grand.
I stood there for those 2 hrs talking to the officers and they didn’t know the rules so the first few people had no limits enforced. The officers didn’t care about any of this and made plenty of jokes about how silly it was. A guy turned in a homemade slide fire 12 ga. made out of pipe and a 2×4. The officers thought it was hilarious.
Yeah, the Minnesota Gun Owner Caucus swears that the police bought the thing pictured above for $100. I won’t be surprised if it proven to be false, but it makes for a nice story. At least it wasn’t a rocket launcher (I’m looking at you, Los Angeles).
They took four from me including an “AR” for $300 … a Charter Arms AR-7 parts gun with a stripped barrel nut 😀
The cops there did a great job. No issues at all except for a late start.
Every single person in line was one of us
From the Fox News link;
“I just don’t feel that a criminal is going to come up to a fire department with a bunch of police around it and turn in a gun,” he said.
Paul Joat, an area gun collector, told The Star Tribune he bought two weapons on the street, ostensibly offering the sellers a better deal than the city could.
“A lot of what I’m seeing is gun nuts turning in their guns for more than they’re worth,” he said.
I guess gun buy backs qualify as “doing something” about gun violence and it’s the least intrusive anti-Second Amendment thing that the government can do.
Besides, after they disable all of the guns, the police are donating them to artists who can beautify our world with their creations. Or probably something more offensive.
Category: Guns
Well, if that don’t make the city of Minneapolis look dumber than a hog in a blizzard.
I am mystified AS TO why anyone with a working brain cell – even only ONE – thinks this is a good idea, when even the cops doing the ‘buy-back’ are making jokes about it.
“Paul Joat, an area gun collector, told The Star Tribune he bought two weapons on the street, ostensibly offering the sellers a better deal than the city could.”
Wouldn’t this sale have been illegal? Where was the background check?
Joke’s on the seller, then, if the police decide to check it for evidence.
Either that, or a hot gun is off the streets and all involved made a little money off of it… which might have been the buy-back’s intent all along.
A cursory look-see at Minnie’s statutes indicates that, subject to certain exceptions, it is perfectly fine for a private party to transfer, by sale, gift, devise, or barter, a firearm to another without any background check. There are certain risks attached which make it smart to run a check, but it appears to be quite legal.
Could’ve been interesting if the law would mandated background checks and transfer paperwork.
Every time Joe Dirt would’ve shown up to trade his weapon for a visa card, a background check on the cop would’ve been required as well as the other fun documents…
About seven years ago Dallas was going to have a gun buyback downtown. I asked a random police officer if I could offer people standing in line money for their guns. He thought about it and said, “Sounds like a great idea”. He could not think of a law I would be breaking. He just advised me that if the police ask me to move, I should move. I drove down there on the appointed day and appointed hour, but there was no line.
not in my state. I keep hoping for one here. I’d show up with a couple of hundred and offer guys and gals $30 for anything that looked decent or repairable.
Points that I have considered:
1. Why would any law abiding gun owner turn in a working weapon? His weapons are essential to his personal defense, and his pursuit of sports.
2. Why would any law breaking person expose himself to turn in a working weapon? His weapons are his “tools of the trade”, and he needs them to maintain his income.
3. Why would any thinking person believe that these “gun buy backs” are anything other than just more “pulling the wool over the eyes of the fools”?
I would throw my legal firearms in a creek before I would put them in the hands of government types.
Well, FC – if the guns in question are
“working” but are also worn-out turkeys and the police are willing to give you twice what they’re worth, it would cost a bundle to rehab it to a useful state, and you have another . . . why not?
Sell 4 true POSs for $100+ each and you can buy a pretty good replacement that actually works – and which also puts bullets where you want them vice somewhere in the general area. (smile)
FC,
I have a clapped out Davis Intl (THE original Saturday Night Special!) in .380 just waiting for a buy back.
1) It doesn’t fire.
2) I paid nothing for it.
3) Proceeds would go for ammo or toward a new firearm.
4) Grins.
How much could I get for my laser tag gun if I paint it gunmetal gray camo, add some cool blinking wheat lights, and put a fake sight on it? It’s all plastic.
A Camo Plastic Fantastic? Must be $100!
One of these days, I should take an old squirt gun and a rattlecan, then see how much they’ll give me for the resulting Scary Black Gun.
Where have you been? You just show up w/o explanation or did you report in in another thread and I missed it? If not, let’s hear it.
It’s fire season.
Happy conflagration!
Aaaand P.T. Barnum is, once again, proved right.
Anybody making fun of the 2X4 shotgun is missing the point. Take that bad boy down to the duck pond, and the birds pass out from laughing. It saves on ammo…
yeah, they stand around with their fancy rifles and laugh at my bolt action 12 ga. In our woods shots of more than 20 yards are rare; the deer are so thick that they will walk all around you. Michigan 50,000 car/ deer accidents per year.
#carlivesmatter
Tell me about it. So far, I’ve hit two of the bastards, and one of them hit my car. The last incident cost the insurance company $3,600 to fix. Worst case of deer suicide I’d seen in a long time.
Just before impact, Bambi was heard to shout “BANZAI !!!!”.
My wife was hit by a deer – he ran right into her passenger door while she was driving, so I knew it had to be intentional. Then he stood up, shook his head and went on across the street. He left the dent for me to fix and she didn’t get any of his insurance information.
I had one run right up under my trailer once after I had picked up a load of furniture in VA, clobbered him dead with my trailer wheels and had a three hour delay getting the air brakes fixed. Every company I hauled for said “To hell with Bambi if he runs out in cd of you, just keep the truck on the road, we’ll get t fixed.” philosophy. I ran over a fair share of them..
During the horny time, commonly called the deer rut, you’re lucky if a stag doesn’t stuff your tailpipe. They remind me of that Star Trek episode in which Mr. Spock has to have some or he ‘splodes or something.
What is Pon Farr? Alex?
Hit a deer once when I owned this little Hyundai Accent while I was in college.
Damn deer got up and looked at me like “Is that all you’ve got?” and then walked off.
Insurance managed to fix the car, so there was that.
Shouldn’t that be “Deer Self Murder”?
Only if you mix in some coconuts with their feed.
Honkers and quackers here, thick as thieves, they are. Especially this time of year when they’re not only training the newbie pilots how to take off, make course corrections, not slam into each other, and come in for a landing without dunking themselves.
Goose/duck hunting season should be underway in about six weeks, deer hunting rolls right into it and the deer are thicker than quills on a porcupine.
And some reporter complained this afternoon about a record-setting alligator (700++ pounds) being taken, because she thinks the gator should ‘go free’.
Thirteen feet of hungry reptile with teeth that do not let go, but does she want to swim with it? They do bite, you know. That was pointed out to her. Dumber than a pair of ballet slippers on a hippo.
Ex-PH2 – you’re being redundant:
“reporter” and “dumber than a pair of ballet slippers on a hippo.”
I do like to be clear, Graybeard.
I would not mind a purse made of gator leather.
Don’t think of it as a 13 foot, seven hundred pound killing machine.
Think of it as a set of matching luggage, plus two pair of boots and a handbag.
Archer’s worst nightmare.
https://youtu.be/ATGaybgla0w
My personal favorite was the lady who ran an anti-hunting group in Maine a few years back – openly advised her group members to walk around the woods during deer season dressed in brown in hopes of provoking an incident, or in plain speech, getting someone shot. Her group members advised her to f*ck off.
There are some areas where anti-gunners are allowed to ‘follow’ hunters on their hunt. They are forbidden to ‘interfere’ with the hunter, but they may ‘observe’ the hunt. Yeah, right, that’s what I was thinking when I read that, also….
A flock of Canadian geese landing on a newly frozen over pond is hilarious to see.
So graceful as the prepare to land and when their feet hit the clear ice they start twisting and rolling around, funny as hell !!!
If the process was anonymous and I had a PoS gun, (I don’t) yeah, I’d turn it in. Anyone asks for ID, I’m outta there. Hey, it’s not that I don’t trust the government but, frankly, I don’t trust the government.
Is the media there to splash the event over the evening news? If so, I’m nowhere around.