U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- On 24 October 2020, the Grand Rapids Michigan Police Department held a gun turn-in event. Those who turned in guns were paid $50 for black powder guns, $100 for shotguns, rifles, and revolvers, and $200 for “Assault” rifles and semi-automatic pistols. From Grand Rapids Police facebook:
The Gun Buy Back for today was a resounding success. Although it was scheduled until 4:00p, community members came down in force to turn in their unwanted firearms, so the event ended early. 107 firearms were turned in.
The next Gun Buy Back Event is scheduled for Saturday November 7, from 10:00a until 2:00p at 851 Leonard St NW. Thank you to all those that came out to support this event today.
The laws of the marketplace worked wonderfully.
The picture shows about 30 long guns (about 3,000 dollars worth of cards), 30 mostly antique revolvers, (about 3,000 dollars worth of cards) and about 35 semi-auto handguns, or 7,000 dollars in cards. That would be about 13,000 dollars worth of gift cards. The semi-auto handguns included a large number that cost less than $200 new. The police ran out of gift cards early, as predicted. There were $15,000 of gift cards allocated for the two events, total.
Most of the long guns were ordinary .22 rifles and various shotguns. If there is a centerfire rifle in the bin, it is not conspicuous. Readers are welcome to point out favorite models they would have been willing to give more than the Grand Rapids government was paying.
On November 7th, they will probably have few gift cards to hand out and will run out even earlier. Perhaps they will be seeking more money for more gift cards in the intervening week.
The coming election may have dampened enthusiasm for turning in guns. The higher than market price for inexpensive semi-automatic pistols may be offset by the extremely high demand for handguns at present.
People who turn in guns at these events tend to fall into three distinct groups.
The most common are people who inherited guns, are not interested in them, do not care to take the time to sell them, and see the gun turn in as an easy way to rid themselves of a perceived problem. Those who plot for a disarmed society do everything they can to further the perception of gun ownership as a problem instead of an asset.
A second group is those who see an opportunity to unload inexpensive firearms for more money than market value. This is especially true of firearms that have problems which are not obvious: missing magazines, unreliable function, sloppy timing on revolvers, hard to find ammunition, among others.
A third group is committed ideologues who hate guns and wish to make a statement. They tend to be a small minority at these events.
It is unknown if any private buyers assisted the police department by privately purchasing good guns to get them off the street and into responsible owners' hands.
There were people coming to the event after the gift cards ran out. They would not be in a mood to take the gun they wanted to get rid of back with them, and would likely be willing to sell it at a discount.
The event was called a gun “buyback”. “Buyback” is an Orwellian propaganda term, because the government cannot buy back what it never owned.
The Michigan legislature took a step toward banning local governments from spending tax money on gun “buybacks” in 2020. From mlive.com:
House Bill 5479, sponsored by Rep. Annette Glenn, R-Midland, would ban local governments and law enforcement from conducting gun buyback or takeback programs that offer residents compensation for their unwanted firearms. Local law enforcement would still be able to accept and dispose of firearms dropped off voluntarily.
The Michigan Senate has not voted on HB5479, which passed the House on 4 March 2020.
About Dean Weingarten:
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.
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