Brooklyn Cash For Guns Program this weekend

Spudee, the "no questions asked" rule does not seem to extend to grenades: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/bronx/2009/04/30/2009-04-30_city_nets_987_firearms_in_bronx_gun_buyback.html

Here's a writers impression on a similar Bronx effort

....clearly not all positive: http://www.bronxnewsnetwork.org/2009/05/reflecting-on-nypds-gun-buy-back.html

dailyheights,

That sounds like a good plan to me, but watch out for those undercover cops that troll Craigslist. I imagine when they get bored posting as an amorous 14 year old girl, they are impersonating someone who wants to sell a gun. (More power to you NYPD!)

My thought in posting this was that by advertising the event here, someone might decide to legally dispose of a gun they no longer want. ....but we can certainly talk about whether we think the event is a good use of a church basement. I think the $ given out for the guns is donated (not taxpayer funds).

This weekend's program in Brownsville, and the one that is referenced in the Bronx, both seem to be held at churches, and in areas of frequent gun violence.

I wonder how successful they are at getting people from outside the neighborhood to come? Or if they have successful events outside of traditionally "gun violent areas"?

....this tangent comes from my head just being astounded at the percent of households in America that own a gun of some type. (I don't have any stats handy, but remember it as being more than half of American households have a gun).

Granted, the % in NYC may be far lower because we don't have as large of a proportion who go hunting every fall, and we have highly restrictive hand gun laws.

...but lets imagine a scenario in which someone living in my building in PH decides that they no longer want the ancient dusty pistol they have had in their dressor for 30 years. Lets imagine the gun as being legally purchased in VA when he was 30, but unregistered in NYC due to our gun laws.

For the heck of it, let's imagine him as a college educated, salaried individual with no criminal background. Make him whatever race you want.

(note: Not me. I have never owned a pistol, and have no desire to own one)

Now, what are the chances that in response to seeing this fine thread, this person is really going to get up the nerve to put their gun in a box and head over to a church they have never been to in (um...) Brownsville?

For an individual like this (who obviously has nothing to hide other than his ownership of this pistol), could we set up somethng wherein he could go to the local precinct and turn it in?

....The guy doesn't want the gun.

Stats say this gun could be:

a. found someone who breaks into his apartment while he's on Christmas vacation,

b. found by his tween age grandkid

c. used by him against his 30 year old stoner neighbor who refuses several attempts to have him stop playing music loudly at 2 AM...

So let's be nice to everyone (including ourselves) and give our character the same cash incentive to get rid of his gun as the folks in the traditionally violent neighborhood.

....obviously, I would be wise to implement some protcol where he'd need to call the precinct first, rather than just come it with it.

Does anything like this exist?

As reported in: http://gothamist.com/2010/12/12/nypd_buys_174_guns_at_brooklyn_cash.php#comments

Yesterday, two Brownsville churches held "cash for guns" trade-in events in an attempt to get guns off the street. Working handguns could be traded for a $200 bank card, and a working rifle or shotgun was worth a $20 card, no questions asked. At the end of the day, the NYPD had bought a total of 174 guns, including 60 semiautomatic weapons, 72 revolvers, 19 rifles, five shotguns and one sawed-off shotgun, as well as a few "improvised" firearms.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly applauded church leaders for their leadership in helping make the gun program a success and Brooklyn streets safer." Since 2008, the NYPD has recovered around 6,000 with cash for guns programs, including getting 1,216 guns in the Bronx in January. And now the NYPD has all these new guns to play with!