Bethany Barnes of Arizona-Sonora News Service brings us the latest on the effort to ban gun buybacks in Arizona:
A bill that would put a stop to city-run gun buybacks passed through the House on a 36-23 vote on March 7, but not without attempts to exclude Pima County from the ban and accusations of gun fetishes.
HB 2455, sponsored by Rep. Brenda Barton, R-Payson, prohibits the government from destroying a firearm unless it can’t be lawfully sold.
Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Phoenix, introduced two floor amendments that failed. His first amendment excluded Pima County from the bill. The other amendment allowed for buybacks as long as the city wasn’t funding them.
“What the amendment is really attempting to do is allow governments to get in the business of destroying guns as long as they partner up with a private company,” said Rep. Justin Pierce, R-Mesa.
Gallego argued that having police involved in buyback programs is helpful since they can then check serial numbers to see if a gun was involved in a crime.
Rep. Ethan Orr, R-Tucson, questioned this argument, asking if a private company funding a buyback program could hire a police officer to check serial numbers.Gallego said the way he read the bill, it would prevent hiring a police officer for a buyback. Orr then asked if Legislative Council had determined that. Gallego said it hadn’t.
Gallego compared turning in guns to being able to turn in other harmful items such as old batteries.
Rep. Bob Thorpe, R-Flagstaff, took offense to this comparison, arguing that someone might turn in a civil war gun, which has a lot of history and shouldn’t be compared to a battery.
Rep. Chad Campbell, D-Phoenix, said he didn’t care if it was the first gun ever, if someone wants to destroy their property they should be able to do so.
“I think it is ridiculous that we are blocking [this amendment],” Gallego said. “And the only reason we are blocking this is because we have some weird gun fetishization where we deem that guns have some kind of intrinsic right.”
This article appears in Mar 7-13, 2013.
Cities are NOT in the business of buying back guns, or illegal drugs, or ex-slaves, or anything else. RUN the town and fix the frikkin potholes…and try NOT to bankrupt us while youre doing it!
this type of arizona republican posturing is exactly why I changed party affiliation to Libertarian and my wife changed to independent. whether I agree with the program or not the legistlature making it illegal to do so is PREPOSTEROUS, and for GK cities are in the business of running local government and representing local people. I believe that a majority of Tucsonans agree with the buy back program that the Kster created and this legistlation is push back on his party change. If someone wants the police to destroy something that they see as a danger to them, their family or neighborhood and a private company wants to incentivize them to do so, so be it. AZ GOP is going to turn me into a democrat.
Arizona government needs to stop trying to micromanage everyone else. If the cities want to buy back guns, it’s none of your business!
And of course the city could give grants to private groups to run gun buyouts — and destruction parties!
And Gallego hit the nail on the head. In the bat-crap crazy right-wing wet dream of a legislature here in the “meth lab of democracy”, GUNS DO HAVE MORE RIGHTS THAN PEOPLE!!!
hold the buy backs. collect th money, split it with the company, absorb the cash into h general fund,l pays0ome bills. Old junky guns, destroy publicly so we can witness it, antique guns,l sell in public auction so city can obtain highest price – cash into general fund.
Forget local laws to restrict ownership of private guns, keep your eyes on the ball.
I would support a city council or board of supervisors that determined it would not be bound by HB2455 or any similar legislation that might seek to prohibit the destruction of private citizens’ personal property turned over to the governmental body precisely in order that it be taken out of harm’s way and turned into a plowshare. Legislators like Brenda Barton surely know of and doubtless would, in other circumstances, approve of acts of civil disobedience.
guns do have as MANY rights as people – it’s called the Bill of Rights. Something I and others shudder to think of losing – through thoughtless, drug addled citizenry muddling their way thru the 21st century. Like it or not, Pima County is part of Arizona. No special cases here.
If I own something, in this case something potentially dangerous, and a legal entity wishes to purchase it, I should have the right to sell it. Period. Gallegos is right. It is a fetish. And not their only one
Automobiles are “potentially dangerous” items yet cities auction them off all the time. A gun is nothing more than a inanimate object like a car. Tucson used donated funds and taxpayer funds for having 40 officers to operate the buy-back. 40 fikken officers and a mobile command center all on the taxpayers dime! For what?
If gun-haters want to host buy-backs they should do it on their own dime and front the costs of destroying the guns themselves. There’s no law against that.
The 206 guns collected by the Peoples Republic of Tucson had a market value of over $60,000. Remember that when the city politburo asks you for yet another tax increase.
And by the way, a city is a chartered political sub-division of the state and not an independent fiefdom unto itself.