You may recall a few years ago the City held a oddly named “Gun Buyback” event, oddly named since the City of Tucson did not sell the guns in the first place. During the one-day event, people were encouraged to trade any firearm for a $50 Safeway gift card with “no questions asked.” It was a strange activity for the city since it was providing a service that is already available in the private sector; anyone can take a gun to a gunshop and sell it to the licensed dealer. Unlike the licensed dealer, however, the “no questions asked” caveat made clear that the city was willing to act as a fence for stolen property.
Currently there are no plans for more “buyback” events, but a related controversy has arisen. The City of Tucson is having most firearms it acquires destroyed. There is apparently no good reason for this beyond the propaganda value of generally vilifying weapons. Some say that “putting them back on the street” makes Tucson a more dangerous place; or, to put a finer point on the same idea, some of these guns have been used in crimes and if they were set free would no doubt continue their criminal rampage.
Let’s ignore the kind of creepy superstitious thinking behind this policy and look at the reality of the situation. These guns are consumer items that are sold every day all over Tucson. There are around 200 licensed firearms dealers in greater Tucson. The number of guns in Tucson will be determined by the local market, not by how many are destroyed by the City of Tucson.
Regarding the bad “crime guns,” perhaps with a little counseling, these “crime guns” might be willing to sign a contract agreeing to practice lawful behavior in the future and then they could be released to the streets.
I hope that the Tucson City Council does not decide that it dislikes other items that come its way. I would hate to see them stop auctioning off recovered bicycles and chop them up instead. Or do an Auric Goldfinger number on “crime cars.” Yikes!
I mentioned that Tucson is having most of the guns destroyed. The City apparently likes rifles and shotguns that are not semi-automatic; those it will sell. It’s those nasty handguns and semi-autos that need to be destroyed. It is trendy today to view bolt action and pump action rifles and shotguns as good guns, while handguns and anything semi-automatic are the bad guns. This is based on fashion more than fact. Is a .22LR target pistol mare effective in combat than a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun? The correct answer is that it depends on who is on the trigger, not some aspects of the firearm’s functioning.
By the way, If you want to get a libertarian to see red, tell him that the scary guns can be picked up by law enforcement, if it wants them, but must be destroyed rather than end up in the hands of a citizen. Yes, such is the case with the city’s destruction program. If the police are the good guys, and it’s alright for them to use the bad guns, how bad can those guns really be? If the law abiding citizenry and the police are on the same side and in partnership, then they can have the same tools.
So now the Attorney General of Arizona is seeking a clarification from the court on whether the City’s program is legal. Along with ten other states, Arizona has passed into law legislation that discourages this sort of wasteful and destructive behavior. If Tucson continues to destroy guns, then the state will withhold a heap big chunk of state shared revenue. Tens of millions of dollars are at stake. Tucson believes the law to be invalid and has taken the state to court as well.
There are a few interesting legal questions. Is the program a strictly local issue and therefore under the authority of the cities? Do charter cities (Tucson is one) have authority in this area while others do not? Is it an issue of firearm regulation for which the state has preemptive authority? We may find out the hard way. Let’s hope that members of the Tucson City Council experience a few lucid moments and not go to war with the state on this. There has been more than enough stupidity already in this regard.
Jonathan Hoffman is the Weekly‘s libertarian columnist.
This article appears in Dec 8-14, 2016.
A very well written article, and absolutely true. The Tucson “group” have there head stuck in the sand most of the time. A gun is a tool, like a hammer or screwdriver…..they don’t kill people…..people kill people. Keep up the good work/articles, even though a certain group of folks will never understand them.
If a gun is just another tool, then why the palpitations? No one is coming for yours, despite what NRA propaganda repeatedly tells you.
Do they get info on seller? It seems that our neighborhood experienced an increase in breakins after they started buying them. Could it be that it was easier to market for Safeway vouchers than to sell a hot gun? That being said they must have also run the numbers on each gun to make sure it wasn’t on an old list for being stolen.
Breitbart links and speculation aren’t much of an answer, but if that’s all you’ve got, so be it. Enjoy your guns, boys. I mean, enjoy your tools.
It’s true guns don’t kill people; Gun Owners kill people. Every time. Unless it’s their kid who found it somewhere, then kids kill people. If guns are not holy, then it is OK to destroy them. Less guns, less gun deaths. But if you think destroying guns is a sin, then you need help, really need help.
The City Council is willing to roll the dice with 12 million of the taxpayers money And if they win it will do nothing to stop gun violence. But, they’ll feel better about themselves and that’s what really matters.
Too stupid to see the results in Chicago?
I don’t care what happens to the guns one way or the other. My guess is it won’t affect gun violence in this city one way or the other.
But why are they wasting my tax dollars destroying them and wasting even more tax dollars fighting the state for the right to do so? Our city council is insane. And I’m a Democrat.
Look up Preemption: Localities are specifically prohibited from passing any law,rule, ordinance etc etc that concerns carrying firearms. Period. If they pass such a law, they are in for a field day of lawsuits.
Marxists and Islamists who infect our federal government plus the media prostitutes who protect them will gleefully lie, falsify, fabricate, slander, libel, deceive, delude, bribe, and treasonably betray the free citizens of the United States into becoming an unarmed population. Unarmed populations have been treated as slaves and chattel since the dawn of history.
The Second Amendment foes lying about gun control – Firearms are our constitutionally mandated safeguard against tyranny by a powerful federal government.
Only dictators, tyrants, despots, totalitarians, and those who want to control and ultimately to enslave you support gun control.
No matter what any president, senator, congressman, or hard-left mainstream media hookers tell you concerning the statist utopian fantasy of safety and security through further gun control: They are lying. If their lips are moving, they are lying about gun control. These despots truly hate America..
These tyrants hate freedom, liberty, personal responsibility, and private property. But the reality is that our citizens ownership of firearms serves as a concrete deterrent against despotism. They are demanding to hold the absolute power of life and death over you and your family. Ask the six million Jews, and the other five million murdered martyrs who perished in the Nazi death camps, how being disarmed by a powerful tyranny ended any chances of fighting back. Ask the murdered martyrs of the Warsaw Ghetto about gun control.
Their single agenda is to control you after you are disarmed. When the people who want to control you hold the absolute power of life and death over your family, you have been enslaved.
Will we stand our ground, maintaining our constitutionally guaranteed Second Amendment rights, fighting those who would enslave us?
American Thinker
You need to switch to decaf.
Well, shoot
Can you provide evidence of the ‘single agenda’ of which you speak? Can you specify the name of one federal employee who wants to ‘control’ me? Who are the tyrants? What are their names? I’m just curious to see your evidence.
You have completely missed the point of the Second Amendment, man. It’s to provide for the common defense with a well regulated militia. To know exactly how irregulars and arms are in any given municipality, and that the owners know how to use their arms, and form defensive lines. Read up on the history of the 2A, dude. There was Yuge public opposition to standing armies.
I would be willing to bet my Desert Eagle that you gladly suffer the tyranny of driver’s license testing and a license plate on your car. When I carry an M204 or M240 SAW in my unit, I must be qualified to do so. I must demonstrate competency for both accuracy and the assembly/cleaning of the weapon. I must be able to demonstrate competency in the event of a misfire. I have no issue with that. I demonstrate competency with my car gladly, and I don’t think its sinister.
You are suffering from cognitive dissonance, American Thinker. I’m not a Marxist or a Islamist. I’m a libertarian. But you better be prepared for the paradigm shift that looms on the horizon:
They’re not going to take your guns away, bruh. They’re going to make them USELESS. The days of the projectile weapon as the be-all-end-all of self defense are almost gone. I can hit you with a sound beam from ten miles away using a drone and make you crap your brains out. The invention of the transistor led to the development of the general purpose computer as the most useful tool ever created, and yes, they have been weaponized.
Your thoughts are so outdated as to be laughable. And I bet you won’t research the REAL story of the 2A because: “Ignorance Isn’t Blind, It Just Refuses To Look.”
You won’t modify your belief structure about the 2A either, even after being offered proof that you suffer from cognitive dissonance on this topic, because: ‘Belief is the End of Intelligence.”
I think it would be glorious to respond to this unfortunate issue by fundraising for the organization’s who educate and emotionally support our immigrant (and non immigrant) children and families, so that our community will be relieved of any imposed disparities or hard feelings, as a result. I’m certain if I had 170 million dollars (as a victim) I’d give it right to these people who deserve it, children and families.
God bless all.
American thinker,
Spoken like a true delusional nazi, overwhelmed with fear and hate for anyone who thinks or acts different than you. I’ll pray for you. Shout out to the level minded soldiers who clarify the thinking errors here.
SEMPER Fi
No one is immune to gun accountability and we’ll learn that the hard way. That’s why we need to understand and address it with positive funding, that doesn’t stain our hands with blood.
“The Second Amendment foes lying about gun control – Firearms are our constitutionally mandated safeguard against tyranny by a powerful federal government. “
Right and when the 82nd Airborne Division drops on Tucson to collect all our firearms, let me know how that works out.
TUCSON CITY COUNCIL AS WILL THE MAYOR ARE BRAKING LAWS AND PLAYING GOD WITH THE PEOPLE in TUCSON AND ARE TAXES ARE PAYING FOR IT
I REMEMBER WELL WHEN THIS WAS STARTED. THAT’S WHY THIS 72 YR OLD LADY STILL CARRIES HER 22CAL CHROME PISTOL, IN HER REAR LEVI POCKET. HAD THIS PISTOL FOR OVER 40 YEARS. BY THE WAY IT IS LEGALLY REGISTERED, AND THE CARRY PERMIT IS IN MY PURSE AT ALL TIMES. ALSO I NEVER REVEAL, BRAG, OR SHOW IT OFF, TILL NOW…LOL REMEMBER GUNS DON’T KILL PEOPLE, PEOPLE KILL PEOPLE! PEOPLE!!!!!
Easy for you to say.
Hail Holy gun enthroned above, oh, Smith and Wesson. This country definitely has a gun fetish. I own lots of guns but I don’t genuflect in front of them daily like this bunch.
“Less guns, less gun deaths..” L. Collins
Herein lies the problem with this assessment of the CITY OF TUCSON, INC.s firearm destruction program, it will not lead to less firearms.
What it hasl lead to is: A loss of well over $400,000 is revenue to help TPD purchase protective vests, radios, body cameras, etc.
The CITY OF TUCSON, INC. can ill afford to lose any revenue.
And our CITY overlords want us to approve an increase in the tax we pay on purchases (sales tax). come May 2017.
The CITY OF TUCSON INC.’s destruction program is a welfare program for firearm manufactures. The demand remains. If there are not used firearms available, the consumer will go out and purchase a new one.
Here is the biggy: What’s the big deal? The firearms are auctioned off on the CITY OF TUCSON, INC website. ONLY FFL’s CAN BID ON THEM. This means they go to a UNITED STATES federal government approved and licensed buyer/seller who has been investigated and authorized to establish a business buying and selling firearms. And here’s the kicker, THEY CAN ONLY SELL THEM TO individuals who have a government approved I.D., who completes a multi page form and signs it under penalty of perjury and must pass a background check. I thought the Mayor and Council loved background checks?
So, all things considered, what’s the big deal????
Dear PolyMath: If you have really researched the Founders and the ‘true’ meaning of the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution for these united States, then you would know that it had no applicability to the States.
Therefore, in our case, only Arizona’s Declaration of Rights, Article II, Section 26 applies when it comes to bearing and keeping arms.
“The right of the individual to bear arms in defense of himself or the state shall not be impaired…”
Obama passed a law to make it easy to take firearms away from those on social Security or disability, and Hillary stated over and over her goal was to destroy NRA so people had nobody to defend them from losing their weapons.
There are about 347 million guns in the USA.
http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com//how-many-guns-are-there/
1.3 million are used in crimes
https://bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/GUIC.PDF
93% of guns used in crimes were bought illegally
http://www.gunfacts.info/gun-control-myths/crime-and-guns/
Guns prevent an estimated 2.5 million crimes a year, almost double of the ones used in crimes. If we remove the guns from the law abiding citizen, it would triple the about of crimes committed with Guns (Who wants that?)
60% of convicted felons admitted that they avoided committing crimes when they knew the victim was armed.
90% of all violent crimes in the U.S.
do not involve firearms of any type
Fewer than 1% of firearms will EVER be used in
the commission of a crime
Review:
Auto’s kill as many people as Guns
https://www.washingtonpost.com//guns-are-now-killing-as-/
There are nearly twice as many saved by guns,
than are used in crimes
About 1.3 million are killed by cars,
but not even a million are saved by a private car
If we enforce the Gun laws we have,
it would reduce 93% of those killed by Guns
If we enforce driving laws better,
we can reduce another million people killed.
And if we regulate the hostile Muslims better,
we can stop almost all Mass Shootings.
Every person in America needs to accept responsibility to report EVERYBODY, who says they are going to hurt or kill somebody. Parents need to be Parents and teach their family to follow the Law and support each other.
There you go again, Pastor. Speaking in facts. Anti- gunners don’t want to know about them.
Yo paster. What fake news site did you get those fake numbers from? The Onion? Newsmax? Wow, they’re not even close enough to call passable BS. So sad.