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Many cities, including the one I most recently resided in, have tried and often failed to implement the “gun buyback” program concept – New York is no exception. Basically, the city will offer to buy firearms from citizens in exchange for a paltry sum of money – no questions asked. A recent NYC gun buyback conducted in Queens this year failed to procure even 50 firearms from the Borough’s 2 million-plus residents.
Guns recovered at Brooklyn’s final gun buyback in 2016. Photo: NYPD
NYC Gun Buyback Results in 44 Total Firearms Turned In
Gun buybacks are often met with a mix of mockery and disdain. Oftentimes these buybacks will fail to garner many firearms being dropped off and even less so from the people whose hands they are trying to get them out of in the first place. The buybacks are proven time and again to not reduce crime but they do put a checkmark in certain city officials’ boxes as part of their to-do lists.
According to the New York Daily News, the gun buyback retrieved only 44 total firearms over the span of a week. The city offered $200 for handguns while those that turned in a long gun were compensated $25. It should come as no surprise that most of the firearms turned in were handguns with a vast majority of them appearing to be old or antiquated revolvers.
Photo: Nicholas Williams
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz believes that the program can save lives:
Every one of these guns that you see here is a gun that is not going to be used in a shooting. The end game here is to gain trust and cooperation and camaraderie with the community.
Guns recovered from a gun-trafficking ring in Brooklyn in April. Photo: Noah Goldberg/ Brooklyn Eagle
