L.A. moves up annual gun buyback program
LOS ANGELES The city of Los Angeles has moved up its annual gun buyback program, originally scheduled for May, to Wednesday following the elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn., that left 26 people dead, including 20 children, CBS Los Angeles reports.
The buyback event is hosted by the Los Angeles Police Department and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's Gang Reduction and Youth Development Program.
Villaraigosa has credited the gun buyback program, which allows residents to turn in weapons with "no questions asked,"with getting close to 8,000 firearms off the streets.
Since the inception of the program in 2009, there has been a 39 percent drop in gang crimes and 33 percent drop in shots fired calls, translating into 241 fewer people shot in the city, according to the mayor's office.
Residents can anonymously turn in their firearms from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Dec. 26 at two locations: Los Angeles Sports Arena, Parking Lot 6, at 3939 South Figueroa Street and Van Nuys Masonic Temple at 14750 Sherman Way.
Officials ask that the guns are transported unloaded and in the trunk of a vehicle.
The city is offering up to $100 Ralph's gift cards for handguns, shotguns and rifles, and up to $200 gift cards for California-classified assault weapons.
The city netted 1,673 firearms, a four-year low, at the buyback program last May. Authorities recovered 53 assault weapons, 791 handguns, 527 rifles, 302 shotguns and one anti-tank rocket launcher. Police also apprehended a pair of pocket pistols worth an estimated $2,000 and an illegal belt-buckle pistol.
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We did this in Rockford, IL 15 years ago. We gutted every known part from the firearms that made it a gun and they still bought them.
We spelled out "JOKE" with the vouchers.
Cali is the only state worse than Illinois in the laughing stock of this nation.
I did encounter a perfect buy-back gun once though. It was the frame of an old revolver that a friend hung from a nail in his basement shop. It was severely damaged in a fire, but looked like it could shoot. Anyone who might have stolen it and tried though would probably have been injured. That was a perfect buy-back gun because it had no marketable value, was not properly stored, and was dangerous as hell to the shooter and the target both.
What a great idea!
How did it begin, this tie between the concept of liberty and guns? With the American Revolution pushing tyranny from our shores and a constitutional amendment written to keep tyranny out of our government.
The argument that we cannot retrieve all the guns and therefore should not try to reduce their numbers ("The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun") seems counter to the logic that we should increase the number of guns (giving them to teachers, firefighters, etc.).
I am not on one side or the other in this debate. I have owned guns. I do not own any guns now. That is my choice. I do not have the right to push that view onto others.
My faith dictates I do not kill, so even if I were in a situation that there was a bad guy hurting others, I might hesitate to kill (Matthew 24). I say hesitate because I really don't know what I would do if my children (my own family or the students I teach) were in danger. But I don't fantasize about doing so. I feel strongly that killing is wrong, period.
I once had a homeowner threaten to shoot me (he was frightened, shaking, pointing a large pistol in my face, convinced I was a burglar and not just the milkman). That man should not have a gun. I almost died that day over the idea he thought I was stealing from him.
I wonder if the fantasy of defending home and family by killing bad guys is so very different from bad guys fantasizing about killing.
What is troubling with this debate is the polarization of views (just as the political debates over the last few years). It used to be people could disagree without name calling. Even if one disliked the president, he was treated with respect (I think that began to change with Nixon).
Can we not seek a balance? Perhaps the NRA can truly listen to the concerns. Is making it difficult to use a machine designed to kill efficiently truly an erosion of our rights? Can we really call gun owners a militia anymore? Perhaps we can look at the motivation behind creating the 2nd Amendment and see if that still makes sense.
Perhaps we can also agree that this is a democracy (or a democratic republic or whatever) and agree that Red or Blue, the people have voted and they desire the government handle certain things (health care, etc.) and stay out of certain things (marijuana), and that some things are too close to call (abortion) and should be left up to states.
Government should provide infrastructure for commerce (roads, the internet, telephones, funded schools, a military, etc.). Some of those priorities are out of whack (we are NOT FUNDING SCHOOLS PROPERLY).
Perhaps we can learn to be kind to each other, listen to each other, seek to find what we can live with and what we can live without.
So... below will be comments that attack my view through name calling and sarcasm. That is fine. I work with middle schoolers and I get that. But... I hope there are some reasonable views out there and an honest DIALOGUE can happen.
Hmmmm... what would happen if every time someone tried to kill, everyone within view rushed him and overpowered him. Yes, innnocents would die (that was already happening), but the criminal would not take his own life and we would see evil thwarted.
I know, I know... seems crazy. But, I believe in what I believe. I suppose there are times when evil must be met with violence (I am thinking of WWII), and I suppose I might do something if it seemed best, but, the Lord God said "Thou Shalt not Kill" and even if I had to end my life to obey my creator, I would.
" God often ordered the Israelites to go to war with other nations (1 Samuel 15:3; Joshua 4:13). God ordered the death penalty for numerous crimes (Exodus 21:12; 21:15; 22:19; Leviticus 20:11).
I do not believe that it is meant literally, but intended on actions of murder. We kill animals for food. We kill pests that are destroying our home. We kill poisonous spiders we find in our home to keep from biting and hurting a family member.
I understand sometimes it is hard to make translations of the Bible or even the commandments, but this is a perfect example of why Jesus Christ has set up the Church. To prevent confusion and have correct translation.