Posted on 07/03/2012 6:57:13 AM PDT by marktwain
Not if your aim is to change hearts and minds rather than draw battle lines.
Last weekend, members of a Downstate pro-gun group made that point pretty well when they drove up to Chicago and turned in about 60 rusted-out and broken guns in exchange for $6,200 in gift cards. This was their supposedly amusing way of ridiculing a gun trade-in program run by the Chicago Police to get dangerous firearms off the city’s streets.
The group, Guns Save Life, based in Champaign County, said they’d use the gift cards to buy ammunition and firearms for a youth program that teaches gun safety and marksmanship.
Clever, huh?
While in town, though, we have to wonder if the pro-gun group happened to read about Heaven, the 7-year-old girl who was killed last Wednesday by goofs with guns who shot into a crowd outside her mother’s house. And we have to wonder if they happened to catch the news about the eight other people killed over the weekend, including a 3-year-old boy, and the 17 who were wounded — all shot by people with guns.
Did they chuckle?
Chicago is a town besieged by gun violence, mostly in deprived neighborhoods where life is tough enough without having to worry about whether your kid gets home safely each night. In response, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the police are taking aggressive measures to reduce the violence, including running firearms trade-in programs and pushing moderate gun-control laws.
To mock those efforts, even as one might disagree with them, is offensive. Our children lie dead in the morgue.
There’s a legitimate debate to be had as to the effectiveness of gun-control laws, a debate that begins on both sides with respect, good will and hard facts. The aim is to persuade, not pummel.
But the more groups like Guns Save Life pull stunts like the one last weekend, the more they drive away caring and thoughtful people.
Gun turn ins are nothing but political theater to delegitimize armed citizens and the Constitution.
The author apparantly does not see how offensive the entire concept of gun turn ins are to those who value the rule of law, the Constitution, limited government, logic and reason.
And so, WTH is the relationship to the gun turn-in program? Those gangbangers who shoot up the south side every weekend couldn't be pried from their weapons with a crow bar. Gun turn-ins accomplish nothing but salve the consciences of the feckless and corrupt officials in those crime-infested cities.
Would the scumbags that shot that little girl ever be the ones to turn in their guns for a gift card?
No.
So gun turn ins are pretty much worthless for preventing crime. But it might be a good way to get rid of a gun that has been used in a crime.
I really doubt there is any wish to lessen gun crimes and murder. The push is to try to prove how bad guns are not to take the focus off of how bad the government is.
Wonder how many of the guns used in recent killings in Chicago were ‘walked’ back into America from Mexican drug cartels who were armed with a wink and a nod from 0bama, Holder and the rest of those fascist goons at BATF?
I remember one gun buyback program where a guy droped a rocket launcher on the desk.
I would have loved to see the clerk’s face.
It’s all about feel-good PR stunts to draw attention from the reality that Chicago’s politicians have thrown the neighborhoods to the wolves, and won’t admit they have let the gangs grow beyond control.
Frankenstein’s monster is on the loose....
I fully expect that the Chicago Land cops will be on the look-out next time and make a bust against Guns Save Lives as they approach to sell the rusty guns.
Chicago’s politicians can’t crack down on gangs too much as it would also draw attention to their political gangs and of course the Mafia.
How’s anyone gonna know? Lots of people (dealers especially) come in from the ‘burbs (even from the other side of the state) to unload their junk for a hundred bucks a pop.
Never underestimate Leftists. They will an officer down to shadow them, and then pull them over when they cross into Chicago.
They don’t care that its unfair and arbitrary. That is who they are.
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