Babies Are Not Weapons

"C'mon you're turning in a firearm. It’s not like you’re surrendering an infant!"

You can be guaranteed I’ll say something really close to those words whenever I’m assigned the desk. People turning in their firearms can be impatient. When turning in a firearm to a police station it requires 2-4 hours of paperwork (thank you, BATFE). At the semi-regular gun buybacks held in Los Angeles and other places people can quickly drop off their guns, get a gift card to a supermarket (in Los Angeles it was Ralph’s) and then within minutes be on their way.

Turning in your gun during a gun buyback is almost as easy as safely surrendering a newborn. Sorry, no Ralph’s gift card for babies. Although, that might be a good way to cut down on the number of abortions, besides making paid adoptions legal.

People turn in firearms to the police station for any number of reasons. A spouse dies, and the surviving spouse doesn’t know what to do with them. A relative dies and the surviving relatives don’t want them. Or they don’t want to go through the hassle of selling them because they have trashy, lame guns that are all rusted and won’t even work. If you are one of the very few who have goofy “I did this for Newtown” reasons, you can be sure the local news will put you on camera, even if you are the only person there with that goofy idea. If you’re an opportunist merely taking advantage of an easy way to ditch your crappy guns, no camera time.

The mayor is under the impression that this expensive program actually reduces crime. I’m not sure what crimes are being thwarted by taking already fired rocket launchers and mostly rusty guns no one is going to use off of the streets. What criminal is going to give up their tool in exchange for some groceries? The great economist John R Lott has several awesome reasons why gun buybacks are pointless.

Safely surrendering an infant is quick, anonymous and easy throughout the state, especially so in Los Angeles County. This law was put into place because of this type of evil shit was happening way, way too often through the 1990s.