Detroit Gun Advocates Hold Buyback to Compete Against Police Gun Buyback Program (MI)

On Thursday, gun advocates in Detroit gathered on the sidewalk across from a local church were police were holding a gun buyback event.

Toting signs that read, "Guns Wanted! Cash" and "Cash for guns,” their objective was clear: we’re willing to outbid the police for your unwanted guns.

Where law enforcement was willing to pay gun owners between $25 and $100 for their used guns, the pro-gun crowd was eager to up the ante.

"These guys out here are willing to double and triple that [price]," event organizer Rick Ector, told Mlive.com.

However, most participants in the police program ignored the gun advocates, offering the better prices. This was most likely due to the fact that a row of five officers stood in the middle of the street, Ector surmised.

"The police are obviously putting a wall, a barricade, between us and the people who are in line," Ector said. "It's a form of intimidation."

Richard Ward, who was selling his grandmother’s 410 bolt-action shotgun to police, considered going across the street to get the better deal, but then got nervous.

While the gun advocates were insistent that selling firearms openly, in public, was legal, the police had a different take on the situation.

"It's illegal for them to make a purchase," Detroit Police Sgt. Eren Stephens told Mlive.com inside. "They have to have a permit to do it. So if they're caught, they're going to be in trouble.

"If you're on a public street, you have to have a permit to do it," she iterated (thankfully, no one was arrested for purchasing or selling firearms in the street).

She also touted the merits of the buyback as a “tool” to reduce crime, a notion that Ector soundly rejected.

"There's a lot of reasons (gun buybacks) are flat out wrong. For one, it's not going to change anything with regards to violent crime in the city of Detroit; two, potentially you have criminals who are destroying evidence along with the Detroit Police Department."

On top of that, Ector also believes that buyback programs send the wrong message to the public.

“Guns are not evil, despite what the government and police are saying," Ector said "Guns do not cause crime; bad people cause crime.

He added that given recent reductions to municipal budgets that effect law enforcement, it’s more important now than ever before that the public see guns as a tool for self-defense and not as harbinger of illicit drugs and crime.

"There have been numerous cuts to public safety resources," he said. "It is extremely dangerous to be in the city of Detroit and for them to demonize the handgun, it really sends the wrong message."

With self-defense killings in Detroit at 2,200 percent above the national average, Mr. Ector makes an excellent point.

I would love to see a nationwide grassroots event of an organized buyback that would bring in used guns that could be evaluated for usefullness, cleaned and then sold back to those in need of an affordable home defense weapon.

Millions of families are just getting by and cannot afford a new $500 or more gun, but with a program for the bun needy anyone can apply for either a free gun or one at a very reduced price through the program.

They want to take away, we will spread them all across the country.

Years ago, the Phoenix New Times published an April Fools’ hoax article about an organization called “Arm the Homeless”, that was giving guns to homeless people in Phoenix.

http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/1999-04-01/news/give-piece-a-chance/

Having a strong liberal slant, they thought it was a ludicrous idea, and the public would be initially horrified before learning it was a hoax, but what they did not expect was how many letters to the editor said that it was a great idea.

That is, a lot of homeless people are just poor, not criminal, and they are frequently victims of abuse from many directions, preyed on precisely because they are less able to defend themselves.

Add to that they are United States citizens, and so still have a natural, and constitutional, right to bear arms.

So why not give guns to the homeless if you are charitable?

Importantly, things have changed since 1999, incorporating such things as background checks for those people prohibited from having guns, and these checks should apply to the homeless as well, in that they are more likely to have felony criminal records and/or mental illness.

But Arizona is a free state, which has open carry and concealed carry without anyone’s permission or licensing required.

About the only thing that I would add to such a program is that such guns should be permanently marked in such a way as to make them unlikely to be resold, which would be the natural inclination of many people who live “close to the bone” and are unsure of their next meal.

In the final analysis, providing guns to the homeless is only as dangerous as allowing Democrats to have guns.

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