Posted on 02/20/2022 3:05:55 PM PST by simpson96
CHICAGO (WLS) -- An I-Team investigation finds some of the weapons taken off the streets during Chicago Police Department firearm turn-in events are very old, rusty and damaged. Others are fakes. But, those trying to stop Chicago violence insist every gun removed from circulation makes the city safer.(snip)
CPD hands out $100 gift cards for firearms and $10 gift cards for replicas ditched at these events. According to turn-in records obtained by the I-Team, in 2021 CPD held four official gun turn-in events. They gave out 475 $100 gift cards for collected firearms and 116 $10 cards for replicas, totaling $48,660. The previous year, 2020, CPD held five official gun turn-in events, handing out 625 $100 gift cards for firearms collected and 122 $10 for replicas, totaling $63,720 in gift cards.
I-Team analysis found that an increasing percentage of fakes are being turned in at these events.(snip)
"Criminals are the least likely folks who are going to be turning the guns in," said James Sobol, Associate Professor, SUNY Buffalo State
Records obtained through FOIA show some of the weapons turned in are very old. They include a "flintlock pocket pistol" that was "popular in BRITAIN during the 18th century," an "early 1900s" Belgian revolver, and several decades-old shotguns and rifles marked as having "heavy rust." They also turned up a toy gun, made to look like a civil war-era revolver.
Criminal justice professor James Sobol has studied gun turn-in programs across the country. He said his research shows the programs don't have a significant impact on reducing crime.
"Are these programs more public relations than public safety?" I-Team Report Chuck Goudie asked.
"The gun buyback again, sounds good. Its impact on crime, probably negligible," Sobol answered.
(Excerpt) Read more at abc7chicago.com ...
Unfortunately, they also get some good ones turned in. God knows how many priceless collectibles these filthy bastards have sent to the smelter.
In the early part of the twentieth century there was a huge number of pot metal guns, sometimes called Dollar Pistols as that was their selling price. They were chambered for a black powder .38 short. (That’s not a bullet I’ve ever seen for sale.) One of the problems with that type of gun was they chamber a modern 9mm which they may, or may not, fire without exploding. The dead giveaway if you fire a modern round is you’ll see about a foot of flame come out of the barrel which is burning pot metal. Pawn shops, at least in the Tampa area, would bring them to gun shows in 55-gallon drums and sell them so you could double your money at gun buybacks. The objective was to run the buybacks out of money. In the early nineties my neighbor confiscated one of these from his high school aged boys as every boy in school was carrying a gun. I explained what the gun was to the boys and showed them it would load a 9mm. I explained what might happen in that they could lose an eye or a hand.
I never saw one of these guns with a manufacturer’s name on it. That’s another clue to avoid them, unless you want a wall hanger.
Any bets the good quality guns turned will end up in some private collection, and others distributed as “drop guns” to the police?
Only the truly junk guns will see the smelter.
Reminds me of an old STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO episode in which a .25 cal pistol forces it’s way upon several people causing them to shoot others, till at last it is cornered, captured and melted down into a sewer cover.
They dont send good ones to the smelter, they are scurried away with.
Nope, we’re talking Chicago cops here. Those really good gun’s paperwork got lost and those guns wound up in private collections.
If you know where o get one, let me know, I want one.
I’ll display it on my hearth, with a box of +P next to it.
In case I’m ever burgled, at least I’ll have the last laugh.
God I hope so!
I sold the city of Baltimore two firearms a couple years ago. One was fatally broken, the other old and unused. I walked away with over twice what I paid frontiers guns.
Simone in line had a WWII British sub machine gun. He got $500 for it. A pittance compared to its value.
“If you know where o get one, let me know, I want one.”
I had two of them. One had a rolled engraving on it and was designed to fire a front-loaded cartridge that was held in place by bending over the “nipple.” The other was rear loaded and the manufacturer had infringed on a patent, which caused him to go out of business after a lawsuit. It was a folding trigger pocket gun.
In the early ‘80’s I rented a house from a retired, alcoholic former Chicago cop. I had quite a number of non-gun heirlooms that were valuable and I still have them. While excessively drunk the former cop asked me what the guns were. They were in my dresser under my underwear and he would never have seen them unless he had searched my house. I went to check them and they gone. He was an extremely unpleasant man who was a cop in “the good old days when you could still beat a confession out of criminals.” (Yes. That is an exact quote.)
So even with black market discounts, the street value of a handgun is probably much more than a $100 gift card.
We use to talk about this at the Gun Collectors Association club I belong to. Sometimes collectors would set up a table near the line and offer more money than the police were offering for good working handguns in decent condition. The feedback we heard from people doing that was that most of them were either nonfunctional, hard real problems (rust buckets) or were quality firearms that a grandparent wanted to get ride of so no relatives would get it if they died.
I never participated, for fear of “receiving stolen goods.”
I’m confident that guns of value go straight into the cops’ private collections.
I would certainly hope so! Many decades ago when I was a kid I had a friend whose dad was a railroad cop. He brought home a sweet Winchester 92 in 25 20! “Aquired” from some hapless guy who was plinking along the tracks.
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