Alabama: "Annual gun buy-back collects 73 weapons"

[cuchulainn]

YAWN

Popguns? Ooh, that will make us safe.

from the Birmingham News

http://www.al.com/news/birminghamne...l_standard.xsl?/base/news/104297165543580.xml

Annual gun buy-back collects 73 weapons

01/19/03

VICTORIA L. COMAN
News staff writer


Weapons came to St. Joseph Baptist Church on Saturday in plastic bags, paper sacks and canvas carrying cases. Some even were brought in nestled in their holsters.

Birmingham residents brought 73 pistols, shotguns, rifles and even pop guns and pellet guns to the church during this year's gun buy-back.

The event has been held each year in Birmingham since 1993 to honor the late Dr. Martin Luther King. Monday marks the national observance of the birthday of the slain civil rights leader, who was shot to death April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, Tenn.

"He taught us to be nonviolent," said the Rev. Abraham L. Woods Jr., the church's pastor and president of the Birmingham Chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, one of the sponsors of the event. King, " ... taught us to turn to each other, not on each other."

Depending on the condition of the weapons, sellers were paid up to $50. The event also offered exchanges of toys considered violent including guns and knives for other toys such as sets of Legos, trains and motorcycles and dolls.

Only one little boy, 3-year-old Quintaris Dinatale, brought in his toy revolver for the toy exchange. He got a battery-operated train set and a "Big Sister" doll for this 5-year-old sister Monica Dinatale out of the deal.

"I'd rather have this instead," he said coyly while grabbing the set from his cousin's hands.

In past years, the buy-back has netted as many as 501 guns. As the years have progressed, the collections have mainly totaled less than 100 weapons from each buy-back session. Woods attributed the drop off to word of mouth about the amounts people get for most of the weapons.

"It was new and people just brought them in," he said of collections during the buy-back's first years. "Many of them brought them in thinking we were going to pay $50 for any gun. They found out they couldn't just bring in guns in any kind of condition."

Still, Woods said he is proud of the results.

"If we can take just one gun out of circulation that would be used to shoot somebody, then what we're doing here today would be very fruitful and not in vain," Woods said.

The weapons were taken to the Birmingham Police Department's property room. Some will be used to help build a sculpture remembering victims of handgun violence in Birmingham, Woods said. The sculpture is expected to stand at the corner of Eighth Avenue North and 18th Street North, he said.

The rest of the weapons will be destroyed.
© 2003 al.com. All Rights Reserved.

 

[benEzra]

Umm . . .

Didn't many of Dr. King's Freedom Riders carry guns to protect themselves from retaliation by white extremists? I seem to recall reading that they did . . .

If so, ironic.

bE

 

[Slotback]

ben:
I do believe that they did carry.

 

[rock jock]

Depending on the condition of the weapons, sellers were paid up to $50.

Wait till they hit $200, buy a boatload of Ravens and retire.

 

[standingbear]

lol rockjock.pension plans and maybe even a bonus..whoever sells the most junk back for good stuff gets a free hat or something.could buy those wooden rubberband guns they sell so many of at gunshows(as if) and paint them black..now its an assault gun,probably get junior a powerwheelie to ride in.lol

 

[Bainx]

Hmmm..."buy-back" program. Kind of infers that the City of Birmingham once owned all of those guns.

 

[six 4 sure]

Man I missed it I have an old .22 single action that isn't safe to shoot that I've been waiting to sell back. $50 sounds good, I don't think my dad paid more than $25 for it.

Six

 

[WYO]

That oughta make a dent in the amount of guns possessed in Alabama, huh?

 

[pbman]

Missed a chance to get rid of my rg-38.

 

[cracked butt]

Wait till they hit $200, buy a boatload of Ravens and retire

I always thought it would be a good idea to go to the local walmart and buy every $25 pellet gun they had and exchange them for the cash- too bad (actually good thing) they don't have any gun buybacks in my area.

 

[Silver Bullet]

I wonder if the church is doing anything to verify these guns belong to the bearers. If not, all they're doing is acting as a risk-free fence for stolen property.

 

[Mark Tyson]

I'm going to stage a little gun buy up of my own.

 

[jimpeel]

rock jock

Wait till they hit $200, buy a boatload of Ravens and retire.

That is what happened in Connecticut. They were offering $100 for any "assault weapon" turned in. At that time, a Chinese SKS was selling for $70. This enterprising guy went in and bought 40 of them and took them down to the turn in. The result was a $1,200 profit for about 2 hours work.

The Connecticut turn in was suspended indefinitely after that. Don't know what they have done since.

 

[jimpeel]

A fun thing to do is to catch the people going in and tell them what their $50 firearm is really worth and hand out cards to the local gun shop that will buy it from them.

Another fun thing to do is to show up with a very expensive firearm (like a Parker shotgun) and then announce in a loud voice "You mean that you are really gonna give me $50 for this $10,000 shotgun? Hoowee doggies what a deal!"

 

[cratz2]

Yeah, I guess the intent is a good one, from the point of view of those trying to get guns off the street but placing different values on different guns really makes one suspicious of where those guns are going.

 

[glirette]

Dallas area gun buy back

 

[jimpeel]

cratz2

Yeah, I guess the intent is a good one, from the point of view of those trying to get guns off the street

Studies of those going into these "buybacks" finds that many of them are widows who don't know what to do with their husband's firearms and "want to do the right thing". The firearms they glean from the street thugs are the ones they want to get rid of beccause they are broken or have been used in a crime and need a "no questions asked" manner in which to get rid of them while being rewarded for doing so.

 

[jimpeel]

glirette

I loved the part of the webpage that states:

We welcome Saturday Night Specials, shotguns, rifles, and handguns.

like "Saturday Night Specials are none of the above.

Of course, they do this for economic purposes as they can then state "This is a SNS and we don't pay as much for those."

They don't make you as dead as the other firearms, either.

 

[glirette]

By the way this may not be clear but I created that web page as a joke because of this thread. Although if someone wants to sell me their guns I will be happy to buy them

 

[glirette]

And actually I put that there so it would get hits on the search engines using that as a search word but it will be a month or so because google and such pick it up.

 

[dave]

I'm sure this has been covered before but I must have missed it.

Do the Police Departments need any sort of FFL to do these "buy backs"? Or are they handled on a "private purchase" basis? Sorry if it seems to be a stupid question - I don't act stupid, sometimes I just am.

 

[glirette]

Do the Police Departments need any sort of FFL to do these "buy backs"? Or are they handled on a "private purchase" basis? Sorry if it seems to be a stupid question - I don't act stupid, sometimes I just am.

This is an interesting question but I wouldn't see why they would need a FFL. What I have considered is the following:

The "buy back" which in itself is a BS term (they never owned it to begin with) can be conducted by any number of folks. They may have support of the police but the police may not actually be the ones that are accepting the gun into custody.

I think that the persons involved with receiving the merchandise in some instances may be breaking the law. This would of course vary from state to state with various laws. My thought is that a large percentage of the guns may be stolen. They may be in possession of stolen property, in some cases knowingly purchasing stolen goods, and who knows what else!

If we really wanted to I think we could put our heads together and terminiate a "buy back" program by arresting (even a citizen’s arrest if needed) the persons working the buy back program.

Also for the states that do not allow for private transfer of guns, this could be another charge.

Not sure if what I am saying is making sense but in short I suspect they may be breaking the law in some instances.