May 8, 2010 - 9:37 PM | by: Michael Tobin
The line of people turning in guns filled a side lobby at St. Sabina’s Church on Chicago’s South side. It stretched down the stairs into the basement of a church to a folding table where police officers made certain they were unloaded before loading them into boxes and handing out pre-paid Master cards. $100 dollars for an assault weapon, $75 dollars for a gun and $10 dollars for a replica that could still be used in a hold up.
The surrendered weapons gave a lot of support to the arguments of those critical of gun buyback programs. Some of the guns were old World War II collectibles. Other were rusty Saturday night specials, some missing pins were held together buy duct tape. There was a lot of evidence that people had dug out old guns from their basements and were trying to get $75 for removing clutter from their house. There was little evidence that gang members were turning in the assault weapons they use to spray bullets in a drive by shooting. While he was in line to hand over a weapon, Anthony Lemon said, “I think there’s more responsible people coming in here bringing guns. It’s the irresponsible people that’s out there with guns that we have to be concerned with.”
That being said, even a rusty Saturday night special can still fire a bullet. It can be used to hold up a liquor store and it can be found by children and fired accidentally. And there were a number of working guns in the pile of more than 300 collected by Chicago police: shotguns, some with the barrel sawed off, even a 357 magnum. (I mistakenly attributed that to the Clint Eastwood movies. Kelly Wright called me out. Dirty Harry used a 44 magnum.)
Chicago’s Police Superintendent Jody Weis acknowledged that gun buy backs don’t strike at the heart of Chicago’s problems with gang violence. But Weis said the effort is a chance to prevent some shootings. “If we can get weapons taken out of the house. At least they can’t be stolen form the house. A child cannot get his hands on that gun.” He referenced a domestic murder suicide that rocked Chicago’s loop yesterday when a man in his 20’s shot a young woman then turned the gun on himself. “If you think of the incident yesterday at old Navy, you have two people there who are now dead. They had issues they were angry, but if there wasn’t a weapon involved. If that weapon wasn’t available to them, they would probably both be alive.”
Getting Guns off Chicago’s Mean Streets
Originally Posted by foxnews
Reply With Quote
