Activist claims buybacks are about caring, not safety

Gun buybacks are annoying. For one thing, no one is buying anything back. They’re buying guns so they can be destroyed. That’s it.

Then there are the problems with the “no questions asked” policies that make it likely that some criminals will use such events as an opportunity to dispose of weapons that could tie them to various crimes.

Oh, and lest I forget, we have ample evidence that buybacks simply don’t work.

But for one activist, that doesn’t matter.

A member of the Hampton Roads Black Caucus in Virginia said it didn’t matter if gun buybacks were ineffective because they needed to show the community that they “care enough” to have a gun buyback.…

A study from the National Bureau of Economic Research found that gun buyback programs are ineffective for many reasons. Among participants from mostly low-crime areas, gift cards that are being offered aren’t enough of an incentive, and the weapons that are brought “tend to be older and less well-functioning than the average firearm.”

WVEC asked Jones to respond to the findings of the study.

“Regardless of what the statistics say, we want to put some attention and show that we care enough and make time to do the program,” Jones said.

Well, that’s it.

That’s the stupidest BS I’m likely to read today. Well done, Mr. Jones. I’m impressed. That’s a level of stupid I didn’t expect to see so relatively early in the day.

I mean, Jones basically just admitted that buybacks are nothing more than virtue signaling, something we all knew. It doesn’t matter if it accomplishes anything, what matters is that they spend this money to show that they care.

Do you know what else will show you care? Actually doing something about violent crime in these areas. That’ll show you care a great deal and have the added benefit of actually making a real difference in these people’s lives.

But why do that? That’s hard. That’s difficult and requires more than a day standing beside a box handing out gift cards.

None of these people really want to put in that kind of commitment. Sure, they can talk platitudes, but the truth of the matter is that talk is about all they want to do on a regular basis.

So, they virtue signal.

What’s more, now they’re admitting that’s what they’re doing and they expect to be able to get away with it. Then again, they probably will. Too many people are fine with that sort of thing so long as the right platitudes are observed.

Meanwhile, people are really being impacted and could really use some actual help. They don’t need virtue signals or platitudes. What they need is help in cleaning up their neighborhoods so their kids can walk the streets without fear of being shot in some gangland crossfire.

Buying up guns that won’t be used for those shootings in some bogus buyback that’s only there so as to show how much someone cares isn’t exactly how you address something like this.