AL: Selma Gun Turn "buy back" in a Success for Private Buyers, Open Carry

Gun Watch ^ | 14 November, 2015 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

A small gun turn in event was held on 7 November, 2015 in Selma, Alabama.  These events have been characterized by the propaganda term "buy back", but as the organizers never owned the guns in the first place, they cannot be "bought back".  The events have become less popular in recent years as private buyers have arranged to offer more for the more valuable guns taken to these events.  That was the case in Selma.  Robert W. Kennedy, Jr. was a private buyer at the Selma event, and commented on it.   From selmatimesjournal.com:

My name is Robert W. Kennedy Jr. and I am the founding member of BamaCarry..I offered more money..

Most of the guns were garbage..They refused to purchase broken guns..I was able to make quite a few good purchases..Rifles and Pistols..

I cannot wait for the next sale..

 

The event paid for 51 guns to be turned in, at $75 each.  They did not use the $5,000 that they had collected to pay people to turn in guns.  They were not happy with the presence of private buyers.  The private buyers also set up a video camera.  Private buyers have been harassed by police at previous gun turn ins.  Police Chief John Brock responded to criticism of the private buyers, noting that what they were doing was legal, and that they were prepared to defend their rights in the courtroom.   From the selmatimesjournal.com article, it appears that the First and Second Amendment activists were successful:

Police Chief John Brock said the group filmed from public property and does the same thing at other gun buy backs. He said they travel around buying antique guns that have high resell value.

"They are in it for a profit. They are looking for something worth more than several hundred dollars," Brock said.

Brock said they also could sue government and law enforcement that interfere with their filming or buying.

"They sue people. They want people to tell them to leave. Everything they were doing was legal," Brock said. "It's perfectly legal to sell a gun ... if I made them leave, there would be a lawsuit."

In a post to BamaCarry.Org on Facebook, Robert Kennedy said that he offered to talk to a reporter, but that he was turned down.  Kennedy and his associate were openly carrying legal, holstered, handguns.

WSFA Montgomery was also there for a few minutes but never spoke with us or filmed us. When I approached the reporter he refused to explain why. I handed him a business card and jokingly thanked him for unbiased reporting..

I looked for WSFA articles about the event, but I was unable to find any mention of the private buyers and Second Amendment supporters.

Numerous academic studies have found that thee events have no measurable effect on crime.  The guns collected tend to be exactly the opposite of those used in crime, and the people who turn them in are seldom criminals.  The events primary purpose seems to be political theater, to drive home the narrative that "guns are bad", "more guns = more crime", and "guns should be turned in to police".

The presence of private buyers undercuts all of those points by showing that guns are valuable assets; responsible, law abiding people value guns, and that turning guns into the police is a way to lose a valuable item that could be worth more on the legal market.   The organizers of the event were upset with the private buyers.  From thesellmatimesjournal.com:

"It won't be successful now if people are going to be videoed," Benjamin said. "I don't know what's going to happen to the gun buy back now."

If the concern were to remove guns from a crime ridden neighborhood, the organizers would have been wise to cooperate with the private buyers.  Bring them into the event, have them purchase the valuable items, while reserving the money their money to obtain illegal or less valuable guns.  The guns would still have been removed from the neighborhood.  They would have been placed in responsible hands.   That fact that they were unwilling to consider such cooperation indicates that they were more concerned with political theater than getting illegal guns "off the street".

 Â©2015 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to Gun Watch

[marktwain]

Private buyers at gun "buy back" events destroy the propaganda value of the event. They show that guns are valued and that there other options to turning them in to police.

[freedumb2003]

From what I can tell, there is nothing that keeps people from selling back to the cops guns that were used in crimes.

A pretty good way to bury the evidence and have the State pay you for the privilege!

[digger48]

Uh oh...another loophole

[marktwain]

The idea that a gun used in a crime is tracable to the crime is mostly television hype. Connecticut and New York both spent many millions of dollars building databases with spent cartridge cases from guns sold in those states.

Neither state ever solved a single crime by the use of those data bases.

Both states eventually did away with their “gun fingerprint” data bases because they were so ineffective and costly.

Very, very rarely, a gun might be tied to a crime scene by ammunition. It usually goes like this:

The police find evidence of a type of ammunition at the crime scene, say, Remington 115 grain 9X19 cartridges using jacketed hollowpoint bullets.

They arrest a suspect. The suspect has the same ammunition in his possession. They tell the suspect that they can tie the ammunition and gun to him.

The suspect confesses.

That is how guns are actually tied to crime scenes.

[Oatka]

WSFA Montgomery was also there for a few minutes but never spoke with us or filmed us. When I approached the reporter he refused to explain why. I handed him a business card and jokingly thanked him for unbiased reporting..

During the Clinton years, at the height of the "assault weapons" Jihad, I got so ticked off, I made a Star of David out of the lid of a margarine tub and inscribed "GUN OWNER" on it with a black marker.

There was a gun show in Salt Lake City, so I went own and saw TV crews busy filming anyone who left the show with an AW. A couple of times, I made it a point to walk alongside of the AR carrier - and the crew would home in on us and then suddenly veer away.

I went inside and evidently the show had allowed the TV crews inside. They had a camera set up to take a long shot of the main aisle. As I walked down the aisle I could see the red light as they taped what was going on. Three times I walked towards the camera, turning my body so the Star showed, and each time, the light went out.

I was so pist I wanted to tell them they were no better than journalistic whores toeing the government line - pressititutes if you will - but thought I'd be tossed out by security if I started a ruckus. That incident always comes to mind when I read some other line of B/S they try to palm off as news.

[marktwain]

If it does not further the “progressive” agenda, it is not news to the media cartel.

Remember what Trump said about the cameras never panning the crowd at his events?

The media cartel is the enemy. Leftist politicians are more like the operational arm of the media than the media is the propaganda arm of the leftist politicians. The lines about who controls who are not clear in the relationship.

[freedumb2003]

The idea that a gun used in a crime is tracable to the crime is mostly television hype. Connecticut and New York both spent many millions of dollars building databases with spent cartridge cases from guns sold in those states.

Useful information.

I guess I can keep my weapon after all!!

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;)

[Pollster1]

Connecticut and New York both spent many millions of dollars building databases with spent cartridge cases from guns sold in those states.

Are you ignoring Maryland? I want recognition for our wasteful spending too. We may be small, but we're world-class when it comes to liberal waste and anti-gun nonsense.

Millions of dollars later, Maryland has officially decided that its 15-year effort to store and catalog the "fingerprints" of thousands of handguns was a failure . . . the system . . . never solved a single case

[freedumb2003]

>>Are you ignoring Maryland? I want recognition for our wasteful spending too.<<

Are we talking about the Ravens or guns?

:)

[marktwain]

Thanks for the correct information on Maryland. Connecticut tried to pass a ballistic fingerprinting bill in 2003, but failed.

[Pollster1]

We failed worse. It passed here and accomplished nothing.

[marktwain]

It “accomplished” quite a bit. It wasted 15 million dollars that could have been better spent by Maryland taxpayers.

“Progressives” are exceptionally good at wasting money.

[Pollster1]

Look at the bright side. We would have spent that money on another anti-gun plan or fighting global warming anyways. It’s not like our governor had better ideas.