Posted on 03/11/2013 3:07:07 PM PDT by marktwain
Santa Fee held its third gun turn in this year on the 9th of March. 232 guns were turned in. At previous turn in events, private individuals bought some of the guns. This approach offered advantages to everyone. It took the guns off the streets, placing them in responsible hands, rewarding their former owners with more money than the formal event offered, and stretched the turn in dollars so that more low-value guns could be traded for the event premiums.
At this third event, the police moved to prevent the private buyers from buying private firearms. It is hard to see why they would do this, unless the police were more concerned with political propaganda than getting guns off the streets. It may not be coincidence that this event resulted in more guns being turned in to police than previous events, which netted 194 and 224, respectively.
From the ABQJournal:
On Siringo Road, police set up controls in the parking area in part to prevent people from buying guns from those who showed up to turn in their guns under the buyback program. Deputy Chief John Schaerfl said the new venue, at one of the city’s facilities maintenance buildings, is city-owned but not public property. Anyone trying to buy or sell a gun there would be in violation of city ordinance.”
New Mexico has a very strict Constitutional provision that prevents local governments from infringing on the right to keep and bear arms.
From a discussion on the New Mexico events: “the applicable language is found in Art II, Sec 6: [...] No county or municipality shall regulate, in any way, an incident of the right to keep and bear arms. The above has case-law holding that such extends to the sale of firearms for the simple/obvious reason that a regulation on sales is a regulation on the keeping -- if you're in NM & interested you can likely go to your county courthouse and examine the annotated State Constitution for the exact cases. “
At least one person who attempted to privately purchase collector arms at the event was quoted in the ABQJournal as saying: “They essentially cut off gun collectors from being able to save these neat old guns,” said one Santa Fean who declined to give his name. “To see them get cut up makes me sick to my stomach.”
It remains to be seen if any action will be taken to rein in the Police Chief and the Santa Fe Police Department.
Premiums for the gun turn ins were in the form of prepaid visa cards and were relatively high: 100 dollars for operational rifles or shotguns, $150 for handguns and $200 for “assault weapons” or “high capacity” weapons. All weapons turned in were to be destroyed.
A turn in event in Maine used a more progressive approach, where turned in firearms were sold to a dealer, with the proceeds used to fund the special Olympics.
Link to discussion of NM Constitutional provision
Link to article listing numerous events with private buyers
©2013 by Dean Weingarten Permission to share granted as long as this notice is included.
“Deputy Chief John Schaerfl said the new venue, at one of the city’s facilities maintenance buildings, is city-owned but not public property”
Um, try again Chiefy. Anything paid for by the taxpayers is public property.
Just wondering how many illegal aliens with guns and street gang members turned it theirs for a $50 Walmart card.
Citizens still have the power of the vote, most sheriffs are elected officials.
Couldn’t the private buyers hold their event outside the city limits? In any case these have to be libs turning in their guns. Let them disarm themselves.
In crime-ridden Santa Fe, where gangs and gangsters hold forth, both the state constitution and Federal Second Amendment provisions regarding guns are routinely ignored by the local police who do the bidding of the extremely liberal/radical politicians. Example: Guns are bad, lesbian/gay/transgender sodomy is good.
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If I wqantd to sell a gun I’d just take it to a dealer and sell it. Whay screw around with these stupid government-controlled events?
--lemmesee--last time I paid anywhere near that for any firearm must have been in the 1960's--
New Mexico is a Democrapic state. Such police antics will not be cause for a law suit.
When I purchased guns in California (and I have no idea what the state laws are in NM), every seller had to leave a fingerprint on the sale form. I'm going to guess that this is one of the reasons... Second, if someone brought in a junk shotgun or a non-functioning firearm, they MIGHT get $25 for it, not a $100-$175 that this event was offering.
Plus, what better place to dump firearms used in the commission of a crime than at a police buyback with 'no questions asked...'
chief is lying out his talking anus.
They wanted first pick?
I would be curious to know in what condition the gun needs to be. Once these 3D printers get good, we could crank out the phoney guns like nobody’s business and flood them dudes.
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