Posted on 03/21/2022 6:21:10 AM PDT by real saxophonist
189 guns turned in at first buyback event with Denver Broncos
By: Rob Harris
Mar 20, 2022
DENVER — Approximately 189 guns, including more than 100 semi-automatic weapons, were collected during the first buyback hosted by the Denver Broncos and the nonprofit RAWtools on Saturday.
The initiative aims to get guns off the streets of Denver and Aurora in 2022, melting them down so they can be turned into garden tools for community gardens.
Community activists, law enforcement, Denver youth, and Broncos linebacker Baron Browning met at Empower Field at Mile High to speak out against gun violence and speak to possible solutions.
Sharletta Evans, who lost her son, Casson, in 1995 to gun violence, has dedicated her life to the issue and spoke at the event Saturday. Casson was three years old when he was killed.
“He had a mother, and has a mother, that will continuously not allow his death to be in vain,” said Evans. “That’s why I’m here today.”
While nearly 200 guns were bought back at the event, it is a drop in the bucket compared to rising gun sales in Colorado.
More than 443,000 instant background checks were performed for sales in 2021, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. That is slightly lower than the more than 487,097 performed in 2020, but is still much higher than the 335,370 performed in 2019. That constitutes a 45% from 2019 to 2020.
While research on other buyback programs has not found a direct link with reduced violent crime, organizers with RAWtools and the Broncos are hopeful it can improve safety in Colorado in several ways.
“A lot of the buyback reasons are related to the ability or access to safe storage, or they might have kids that are getting older and they feel more uncomfortable with a firearm in the house,” said Mike Martin, founder of RAWtools. “You’re three times more likely for a gun to be used against you or someone you love in the home than it is against an intruder. So it really makes home safer to reduce the number of firearms in your home.”
For Martin, the process of collecting unwanted guns and turning them into gardening tools is both purposeful and poetic.
“You’re taking something that brings harm to communities, and turning it into something that heals communities,” he said.
The Denver Broncos and RAWtools have buyback events planned in Denver and Aurora each month through October of this year. The next event will be on Saturday, April 9, 2022, in Aurora.
All guns bought back will be completely anonymous.
I saw this story on the news last night. Some Broncos player hammering on a gun barrel. Bunch of symbolic Bravo Sierra.
;>)
Stoopid people still watch the NFL.
Around here...they were buying new and better guns with the money.
You’re three times more likely for a gun to be used against you or someone you love in the home than it is against an intruder.
The “wild West.” :[
What does “approximately” mean? Either they got “189” guns or they didn’t. Don’t tell me nobody was keeping track. Doesn’t sound like a very well organized commie lib event to me.
They? Them?
Someone pulled that out of their ass a long time ago and it’s been repeated ever since.
The NFL can start hosting tissue collecting events to give tissues to the women who are beaten by NFL players.
Maybe collect ice and concealer for the women's black eyes.
Shipped to Ukraine?
***collecting unwanted guns and turning them into gardening tools is both purposeful and poetic. ***
Much like this old TV show in which a .25 cal pistol escapes it’s buyer and goes on a rampage till caught and melted down into a manhole cover.
The Streets of San Francisco
The Twenty-Five Caliber Plague
Episode aired Dec 12, 1974
This was typical of many of the anti-handgun shows from the 1970s and 1980s after the murder of Bobby Kennedy by a Palestinian Immigrant.
Others with the same .25 cal plot were..
Hawaii Five-O
Diary of a Gun
Quincy M.E.
Guns Don’t Die
Blaming the guns instead of the person who did it.
“Sharletta Evans, who lost her son, Casson, in 1995 to gun violence”
Wonder how many guns the bronco players own?
You can’t “buy back” something you never owned!
Well, just over the weekend, some people broke into the late Demaryius Thomas’ house in Atlanta, and seven guns were among the items stolen.
Completely anonymous - really?
Wonder how many ‘hot’ murder weapons are disappeared at these events?
My weapons have been used to defend my home or family on more than one occasion. Never had to fire. Never had one pointed back at me. That’s complete horseshit.
How’s that old saying go...”those who beat their swords into plowshares will plant crops for those that didn’t”.
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