Let me see if I can convince you that those types of ideas are bad...
I think we can all agree that these buybacks do nothing to make the streets safer. Their main purpose is to make it look like there is a 'gun problem', and to make it look like the police and concerned entities are doing something about it.
Let me repeat part of that: One of the main purposes of these buybacks is to make it appear to the sheep that there is, in fact a 'gun problem'. Do you know how they do that?
Here's how: By taking in a lot of guns.
Picture this... You sell 'back' a rusty worthless non-functioning single shot shotgun that hasn't been fired since the Nixon administration. On the way out with your Wegmans card, you tell a reporter that you're going to buy ammo with it. At Wegmans.
Later on, during the news story they show the Worcester chief of police holding up your shotgun and saying, "This weapon can cut a child in half with one shot and we took it off the street today."
Then they show you saying that you're going to buy ammo with the card you got. At Wegmans.
Have you helped? Are you glad your gun is off the street? Because you let them be able to say that.
Do you still think it's a good idea for us to line up and turn in 100s of guns?
I was pretty neutral on this topic when I started reading the thread. I was turned before I got to this post but its the most complete and simple explanation of why buybacks are a problem.
I think we have to keep in mind that because the media, in general, is anti gun they are quite adept at spinning the stats of a gun buyback anyway they can. As a result, the only way to combat the message is to do anything we can to decrease the number of guns that come in. Has a news story EVER commented on how many of the guns taken in were non functioning, black powder, or BB guns? Have they ever mentioned that most come from scared old ladies that didn't realize they had them in their attic? Have they ever talked about the number of participants that clearly scrounged up a useless gun so they could get a food card? I'll help you, the answer is no. All you hear is how many guns they took in and lines about "killing machines" and "assault rifles" with menacing shots of a table full of guns.
To those that offer a rush on a buyback might bankrupt them I would ask what you think the headline would be the next day. It would not be about how they can't have another buyback because the money is gone.