Don't see the point. There will probably be a gun show at the same time selling just as many as are taken back.

How many gun deaths are caused by family members or burglars accessing guns and then killing people accidentally, intentionally, or by suicide? I bet more deaths are caused by gun accidents and suicides than by murders.

These guns may have been purchased legally years ago for sport or whatever, but haven't been used in years. Now they are just a danger to society, but the owner is to lazy or uniformed to get ride of them. These gun disposal programs with no questions and no paperwork are a great way to quickly improve public safety. Same goes for toxic waste disposal programs, prescription drug disposal programs, high pollution car disposal programs, etc.

How does one contribute to the fund?

> How many gun deaths are caused by family members or burglars
> accessing guns and then killing people accidentally,
> intentionally, or by suicide?

This is a question that is not easily answered, since the data reported by the FBI on gun violence does not seem to track "accidental" shootings.

People are shot accidentally, to be sure--but it's difficult to believe that accidental shootings comprise more than a small percentage of the total yearly shootings.

Accidental shootings are miniscule to the deaths caused by smoking, every year.

Web Link

The CDC tracks this kind of statistics. this link gets you to 2010 stats on violent injury deaths. Since other types of deaths are in the stats as well, it will help with the size of the issue vs other violent deaths.

Most gun deaths are suicides.

Don't forget the spur of the moment "crime of passion" murders that would not occur if a gun was not readily available.

> The CDC tracks this kind of statistics.

Thanks for the link. However, accidental shootings are not tracked in this chart.

It will have zero effect.

"Thanks for the link. However, accidental shootings are not tracked in this chart."

Good point because it's not in the top ten, however there is a link to query their raw database, I bet it's in there.

See:

Web Link

I have only found this today, so I dont know that its there, but it sure looks like they give a lot of ways to slice up the data.

Here are other top ten PDFs

Web Link

FYI, I found the data in their database. I did top 20 unintentional injuries and it was 20th for a lot of age groups.

> FYI, I found the data in their database. I did top 20
> unintentional injuries and it was 20th for a lot of age groups.

Yep. Thanks for chasing this down. The FBI data only involves crime, so the CDC data would be a superset, since it includes crime-related injury/fatality data, and data not related to crime.

Sell your guns to them if you want..but if your attacked by a criminal in your home of property you will regret not having it around. 200 for rifle and shotguns 100 for handguns please..no thank you.

I'm hearing that gun buyers are wait "around the corner" to buy these guns before they can be turned in. They offer a lot more money than the city would offer for collectible guns. There was a story on the news about this.

"Sell your guns to them if you want..but if your attacked by a criminal in your home of property you will regret not having it around."

And how often have you had to fight off the zombie hordes you see in all the movies?

"I'm hearing that gun buyers are wait "around the corner" to buy these guns before they can be turned in."

Link please? I think it's a crock.

Great to get unwanted guns off the streets, out of closets, etc.. Great job by the police.

Which will be a fraction of the guns that were recently purchased in panic buying...good work media/politicians

I don't oppose gun buybacks, but these don't have any impact on mass murders like Newtown. They may affect suicide or homicide rates, but I doubt it. People who never intend to do harm to themselves or others are likely the only ones selling guns they don't "need." The only area it may impact at all are accidental shootings.

If people want to make a difference, they should campaign and lobby for mental health and drug offense reporting by states to the federal database that affects whether someone is denied a firearm permit. They should also demand that pharmaceutical companies and doctors urge patients to remove guns or make them inaccessible by anyone in their household taking anti-depressants. They should require patients to sign off on the notification. Most of these heinous murders are committed by mentally ill and unstable men on psych meds.

And in case it isn't obvious, most PA schools have easy, open access for intruders and there are no security barriers whatsover for armed intruders. Making parents sign in to volunteer in the classroom has zero impact on safety.

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Loony, Loony, Loony.
Tell me how anyone can buy back something they never had?
More Bumper Sticker philosophy.
Getting firearms out of the hands of the bad guys is admirable! Too bad they only laugh at these feel good propaganda stunts.
"No tragedy must go wasted" DNC Mantra.

John Galt: I hear your buddy, Beck, is putting together a libertarian paradise, the ideal city for free marketeers.

Wonder if he'll allow buybacks...

In the early 1700s, the English army went through the Scottish Highlands, demanding the residents hand over all of their guns. What the clansmen did was to hand over all,of their old, rusty, useless weapons. The best ones were carefully wrapped and hidden under the peat-stack. In 1745, there was a big revolt, fought with those weapons.

My fear is that the buy backs amount to the same thing, people turning in their old or inferior weapons and pocketing the money, while keeping the best ones. How can the authorities be sure they have all of a citizen's guns.

Speaking of citizens, I board my horse at a stable near the Sunnyvale Gun Club in the Cupertino Hills. On Saturday mornings, there is quite a line of cars to get into the club and they appear to be overwhelmingly Asian. Is anyone accounting for the guns owned by people who are not US citizens?

@quick draw mc, happen in Seattle on jan 28th. Private parties waiting to buy back guns at a city buy back program. They offer more money than the city was offering for certain type guns and it was legal. Starting to happen more too. Google it if you don't believe me.

Fred: I see that. That'll stop with universal background checks, I imagine.

my fear: " How can the authorities be sure they have all of a citizen's guns."

What on earth are you talking about?

I'm happy to bring in some old guns in storage. But two concerns: how much is being offered in buyback, and do I have to stand in line with all the people whose safety around guns may be questionable?

Well in the future if the legal secondary gun market is shut down then only criminals would be looking to buy guns from other would-be criminals. You would both have to walk into a gun store and do the background check.

As for the tale of the 1770's and the Scottish Highlanders vs. The Redcoats.......more secessionist malarkey about the Second Amendment. The Second Amendment was put in place in order to let the slave-holders continue to have their slave patrols.

But many people think it's to keep them safe from a tyrannical government. Ironically many of the current incarnations of the slave-holders now find themselves facing President Blackula and want to rise up!

If citizens are to have the same weapons that existed then, then the populace could all have black powder muskets and pistols. A bit slower than sem-auto.

OR if one truly believes the Second Amendment was put there in order to allow the citizenry to overthrow the government at will, then the citizens should be able to possess fully automatic rifles, bazookas, tanks, jets, etc. Or at least some latter day John Galt should be able to buy them to protect himself from the latter day slaves.

But we've been in the middle and don't even allow citizens currently to own fully automatic weapons. But universal background checks, closing down the secondary gun market, outlawing large clips, etc., all reasonable goals now have the NRA frothing at the mouth ala John Calhoun caning John Summer on the Senate floor. Now all they are left with is obfuscation worthy of Eric Carman, saying stuff like "it won't work", "the guns are already out there", etc. Sour Grapes.

Getting the "guns out there" reduced will inevitably bring down crime, maybe even 10 years down the road. But real support and opposition is based on whether or not one supports the current revival of efforts towards effective gun control.

The NRA is the victim of it's own success. It thought itself invincible and now is seeing itself being left in the dust. They wouldn't bend even a little and now they are breaking apart.

This is a good opportunity to steal a gun, use it to kill someone, then turn it in to these people, no questions asked, and get paid for it. Or maybe just burglarize people's homes looking for guns and get some cash for it, now that the someone has decided to set up a convenient fencing operation. Also, don't miss the chance to unload any gun you have that has already been used for a crime.

What happens to these guns after the buyback? Are they melted down and destroyed? What if some of them might be potential evidence in an unsolved crime? Are the guns tested and traced to see if they were used in crimes? If so, then how do you get in touch with that anonymous person who dropped (or dumped) the gun off at the event?

Gun buyback events have noble aims but no one seems to have thought it all through with follow up questions. I searched the internet for answers to my questions but no trustworthy information could be found.

I think "okay" has a valid point too. How safe are these events? We saw that guns misfired at a few guns shows last month. Who's to say that can't happen at a gun buyback event too? I want to reduce the proliferation of guns in our community too, but these buyback events seem a touch naive and vague.

"but these buyback events seem a touch naive and vague"

To you, apparently. Sorry you rather have unwanted guns out in people's closets than with the police.

You just admitted gun shows were more problematic; do you feel the are also "but these buyback events seem a touch naive and vague"?

vague: Don't overreach my point. I didn't post to object to gun buybacks or their purpose! No I certainly do NOT want unwanted guns in people's closets. (Where did you ever get that idea from my post?) I just want some accountability. It seems more than odd that NO ONE inquires about the disposition of guns after they are turned in. What stops a murderer from dumping a crucial piece of evidence at one of these "no questions asked" events? How can we be 100% certain that the guns will not somehow end up back on the streets? Are they being melted down into scrap metal? Where then?

Have you heard the rhetoric from the gun rights crowd? Do you think they are going to hand over their "2nd Amendment symbols of Freedom" to police (whom they tend to view as "agents of government oppression and control") without knowing the answers to these questions? So if you want gun buybacks to be anything more than a feel-good event, then someone has to provide some accountability.

This is the problem with the whole issue of gun control in America right now. People only perceive two camps: "For gun" or "Against gun". Look at the reaction to my post! Immediately I am put in the "For gun" camp because I asked a few questions about how a gun buyback event works. If there is a camp out there you wish to put me in, then title it "Camp Responsibility" because THAT is where I think I best fit in.