{"id":93152,"date":"2023-05-25T13:20:45","date_gmt":"2023-05-25T18:20:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=93152"},"modified":"2023-05-25T13:20:45","modified_gmt":"2023-05-25T18:20:45","slug":"93152","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=93152","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Gun “buyback” focused on so-called assault weapons is a huge flop<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve long believed that the primary benefit of gun \u201cbuybacks\u201d are the positive headlines for politicians and anti-gun activists typically generated in the local press both before and after the compensated confiscation event takes place, and one recent campaign in the Michigan town of Ludington has done nothing to disabuse me of that idea.<\/p>\n

As the Midland Daily News recently reported, an event specifically designed to get gun owners to hand over their modern sporting rifles in exchange for a $300 gift card led to \u201cone less assault weapon<\/a>\u201d in the area, because only a single rifle was turned in. Despite that, the local paper still delivered glowing praise for the organizer of the failed \u201cbuyback\u201d.<\/p>\n

For a group of Mason County residents, the\u00a0Uvalde tragedy was more than a time for thoughts and prayers, it was a call to action.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, a group hosted an anonymous and voluntary assault-style weapon buyback program at the\u00a0Ludington Police Department<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It was the first local event of its kind sponsored by the Starfish Buyback Program.<\/p>\n

Eligible weapons brought to the police department could be exchanged for a $300 \u201csupercenter\u201d gift card.<\/p>\n

Karen Reader, a member of the program\u2019s task force, reported that one assault style-weapon was voluntarily exchanged during the event.<\/p>\n

In an email, Reader stated, \u201cWe are looking at this from the standpoint, one less assault weapon in our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

It appears a fitting start for a program, which according to its mission, \u201cis based on the belief that no matter how small or futile this action may appear, any effort to save lives matters.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019m glad they state that they\u2019re doing this based on their \u201cbelief\u201d rather than any supposed facts, because the idea that gun \u201cbuybacks\u201d actually accomplish anything of substance is a leap of faith not backed by any evidence. In fact,\u00a0one recent study<\/a>\u00a0found that violent crime actually increased, at least in the short term, after these kinds of compensated confiscation programs were put in place.<\/p>\n

Controlling for \u201cdemographic, socioeconomic, and policy controls measured at the county and state levels\u201d that might affect the gun crime and gun death rates no matter what was going on with buybacks, the researchers concluded that \u201cwith 95 percent confidence, we can rule out gun crime declines in the 12 months following a [buyback] of greater than 1.3 percent and gun crime declines of greater than 2.2 percent\u201d more than a year after they happen.<\/p>\n

They also found that in the immediate two months following a buyback, jurisdictions saw \u201can increase in incidents of firearm-related crime. The 7.7 percent increase in gun crime\u2026is relatively modest, suggesting at most, two additional gun crimes.\u201d They saw no corresponding increase in\u00a0non-<\/em>gun crimes in those two months. Breaking down the distinction between violent and nonviolent gun crimes, they found no evidence that buybacks lowered either in the short or the long run.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And that\u2019s when more than one gun is turned over. I guess the good news here is that since only one gun was handed in they\u2019re not likely to see any increase in violent crime either.<\/p>\n

Thankfully this initiative isn\u2019t taxpayer-funded, so its private donors who are wasting their money on this virtue signaling effort to go after modern sporting rifles. And since they only shelled out $300 the first time around, the Starfish Buyback Program has plenty of cash on hand for their next event in case anyone actually shows up.<\/p>\n

I wouldn\u2019t count on that happening, but maybe after another wasted weekend the folks behind the \u201cbuyback\u201d will get the hint that their efforts at promoting public safety are better directed elsewhere. I\u2019m sure there are some worthy non-profits who are doing valuable work in the area that doesn\u2019t involve demonizing commonly-owned firearms or the people who own them, and sending some extra cash their way would do far more good than the compensate confiscation program ever could.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gun “buyback” focused on so-called assault weapons is a huge flop I\u2019ve long believed that the primary benefit of gun \u201cbuybacks\u201d are the positive headlines for politicians and anti-gun activists typically generated in the local press both before and after the compensated confiscation event takes place, and one recent campaign in the Michigan town of … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-loser-o-the-day"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=93152"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93153,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93152\/revisions\/93153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=93152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=93152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=93152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}