iamkris
Member
Then again, this is Illinois...like it will do any good. Still, we must fight the good fight.
Here's the article that got me steamed.
http://www.pioneerlocal.com/highlandpark/news/162817,G3-gunbuyback-120706-s1.article
Here's my letter (I used Gun Facts for some of the data)...hopefully they will publish it.
Lake County's misguided "Gun Buy-Back" (John Roszkowski's December 7th article "Unwanted Guns Worth $") suffers the same symptoms as do other "feel good" legislation around the country -- do something, even if it has no effect, to appear to take action. In the article, Andy Anderson says all he wants to do is "get unwanted guns off the street". Most people associate things that are "on the street" to be criminal items like drugs, illegal weapons and other illicit items.
In fact, the guns that are traded for trinkets at gun buy-backs are anything but "on the street". In 1997, the Violence Prevention Research Program at U.C. Davis reported that "the firearms that are removed do not resemble guns used in crimes. There has never been any effect on crime results seen”. David Kennedy, a Senior Researcher at the Harvard University Kennedy School, said in his research about gun buy-backs "They do very little good. Guns arriving at buy backs are simply not the same guns that would otherwise have been used in crime. If you look at the people who are turning in firearms,they are consistently the least crime-prone: older people and women."
More common are guns turned in for a $50 gift card that are either non-functional or, tragically, hold historical significance. There are more than one report of a grieving widow taking her recently-deceased husband's "old gun" to a buy-back...where a carefully preserved World War II "bring back" or Old West ""Peacemaker" are confiscated and destroyed, robbing us forever of a priceless reminder of our nation's proud history.
Anderson's inference that guns in the home create an environment where they "fall into the wrong hands" or cause harm to the owner relies on studies that claim this is true...but as Gary Kleck of Florida State University has shown, that data is skewed by including households where known criminals or drug abusers reside or frequent.
In the end, we are better served by public officials who take the time to research an issue and find REAL root causes and REAL solutions...rather than "feel good" programs.
Kristopher Rich
Libertyville
Here's the article that got me steamed.
http://www.pioneerlocal.com/highlandpark/news/162817,G3-gunbuyback-120706-s1.article
Here's my letter (I used Gun Facts for some of the data)...hopefully they will publish it.
Lake County's misguided "Gun Buy-Back" (John Roszkowski's December 7th article "Unwanted Guns Worth $") suffers the same symptoms as do other "feel good" legislation around the country -- do something, even if it has no effect, to appear to take action. In the article, Andy Anderson says all he wants to do is "get unwanted guns off the street". Most people associate things that are "on the street" to be criminal items like drugs, illegal weapons and other illicit items.
In fact, the guns that are traded for trinkets at gun buy-backs are anything but "on the street". In 1997, the Violence Prevention Research Program at U.C. Davis reported that "the firearms that are removed do not resemble guns used in crimes. There has never been any effect on crime results seen”. David Kennedy, a Senior Researcher at the Harvard University Kennedy School, said in his research about gun buy-backs "They do very little good. Guns arriving at buy backs are simply not the same guns that would otherwise have been used in crime. If you look at the people who are turning in firearms,they are consistently the least crime-prone: older people and women."
More common are guns turned in for a $50 gift card that are either non-functional or, tragically, hold historical significance. There are more than one report of a grieving widow taking her recently-deceased husband's "old gun" to a buy-back...where a carefully preserved World War II "bring back" or Old West ""Peacemaker" are confiscated and destroyed, robbing us forever of a priceless reminder of our nation's proud history.
Anderson's inference that guns in the home create an environment where they "fall into the wrong hands" or cause harm to the owner relies on studies that claim this is true...but as Gary Kleck of Florida State University has shown, that data is skewed by including households where known criminals or drug abusers reside or frequent.
In the end, we are better served by public officials who take the time to research an issue and find REAL root causes and REAL solutions...rather than "feel good" programs.
Kristopher Rich
Libertyville
(That is, a buy-back official ends up with a gun that really *was* a crime gun.)
