Here’s a fun one for all of our beloved gun owners out there. Boston just reinstated its “Your Piece for Peace” gun buyback program this past Wednesday, despite the fact that the tally this year has amounted to - wait for it - one, single firearm.
That’s a massive undercut from 2014’s intake of 410 guns. “There’s no question why the total number is down: The gun buyback’s numbers clearly aren’t on the same level as the guns taken a year ago,” police spokesman Officer James Kenneally said. According to him, though, the program's lack of success isn’t enough to shut it down: “As long as there’s funding, it’s an option we can provide to community members.”
Isn’t it hard to imagine gun owners, especially those possessing firearms illegally, actually trading in their firearms for a loss of hundreds of dollars? As Breitbart’s Awr Hawkins said, “Your $600 gun for our [$200] gift card.”
Boston Mayor Martin Walsh blames the program’s failure on a lack of promotion. “We need people to know that the gun buyback program is still in process,” he said. “We’ve never ended it. So we’re going to continue to push that out there, and having more information out there letting them know that the program is still in existence, it’s a good thing.”
“We need to make sure we double our efforts on that,” Walsh said. “I’m asking any family members out there that you know have a gun in the house — or you might know that one of your kids has a gun — we will come and pick it up. We will take the gun out of the house.”
The stated goal of the program is to take illegal or homemade guns off the streets, in hopes of making a dent in the gun-related violence in the city. They would entice illegal gun owners with $200 Visa gift cards and a promise of protection from prosecution as long as the gun wasn’t directly connected to a crime. But, isn’t unrealistic to assume that illegal gun owners would have the desire to turn in their weapons?
Boston Police Commissioner William B. Evans said, “If we get one gun off the street, this program’s effective.” Well, if that’s where the bar of success has been set, then the program is already meeting expectation. Just one more and they’ve doubled their projected yield!
While their hearts may be in the right place, the program is obviously failing. It has only brought in a single firearm while the city’s non-fatal shootings are up 43 percent since the last year.