Posted on 09/19/2009 8:50:27 PM PDT by greatdefender
BRADENTON - The Manatee County Sheriff's Office ran out of money, and fast, during their gun buyback event today.
"I'm amazed, quite honestly," said Manatee County Sheriff Brad Steube. "People were lined up well before we started."
The Manatee County Sheriff's Office allotted $10,000 for today's program. Shortly after the program started at 4 p.m. deputies were out of cash, Steube said.
Officials held a similar gun buyback event in July where they purchased some 77 guns, Steube said.
Within the first 20 minutes, deputies had more than 100 guns, he said, and were left scrambling for more money to give out.
The buyback event came on the heels of the recent shooting deaths of teenagers Jazmine Thompson of Bayshore High and Dejuan Williams, a recent Bayshore graduate.
The buyback was held in association with a violence awareness rally at Johnson Middle School in Bradenton hosted by Manatee County Commission Chairwoman Gwen Brown and Manatee County School Board member Barbara Harvey, who asked the sheriff's office to help. "A Youth Unity Walk Against Violence" led by the Manatee County NAACP Youth Council was held Tuesday.
Marion Mack waited her turn in line with two pistols her son, currently in prison, left at her home, which she shares with her 8-year-old granddaughter.
She has no use for the firearms, Mack said, adding that she doesn't want her granddaughter getting her hands on them.
"In light of the kids getting shot for no reason, I think it's a shame," she said. "We don't need to fight our battles with guns."
In exchange for working firearms, participants received $50 for a revolver and $100 for a rifle — no questions asked. Background checks are run on the firearms, and after being salvaged for parts they are destroyed.
Richard Arens, 70, had a donation of a different sort. He was turning in a pistol and two rifles, one he purchased as a teen to use while deer hunting with up north. He paid $2 a week until he had it paid off.
"I've had them so long they're like keepsakes," said Arens, who began to weep in line. "It's emotional because I've had them so long and nobody to give them to."
Obama supporters (gang bangers and meth heads) are hard up for cash.
If you’re not out sticking up convenience stores or murdering your neighbors, why turn them in? This doesn’t make sense unless you’re hurtin’ so bad you need the 100 bucks.
No, it doesn't make sense even then. Unless it's a real piece of crap, you could just sell it for more than that, and then you wouldn't have the stigma of having cooperated with statists or diminished the supply of guns on your conscience.
You’d think, but a lot of guns sold in buy backs are by legitimate owners selling junk that doesn’t work anymore or like poor Mr. Arens has no use for them and nobody to give them to.
The ONLY time it makes sense to participate in one of these is if the reward is more than the value of the gun and the gun doesn’t work or is just a piece of crap. In that scenario, you’re coming out ahead money-wise and your useless gun is taking a slot that might otherwise have resulted in disarming the public. You get to use the statists’ own money against their objectives.
Who will come knocking when all the weapons are gone?
We have a large pile of those. It used to be a much larger pile. They won’t run buy backs around here anymore. I like to think that we were responsible.
True. $100 for a broken gun is a great deal. Almost worth trolling garage sales for parts.
It can "work" just fine, but not be very safe to shoot at all. I've seen stuff cobbled together that looks great, and even functions (unloaded), that I wouldn't try to fire by remote control behind a stack of sandbags.
What is Richard Arens smoking? He was weeping because he had nobody to give his guns to, so he wants them made into another metal object? That boy is techted.
$50 to $100 hundred dollars? WTF? thats like taking my brand new Chevy Tahoe back to the dealer and getting $2500 dollars for it. idiots.
Mr. Arens, you are a silly old sot. There were no law-abiding citizens in your neighborhood? No teenagers without a dad who would love to go shooting and learn from you?
Armas? Por qué? El gobierno los protegerá. (Guns? Why? The government will protect you.) Fidel Castro
Are there no NRA instructors in Manatee County? (Oh, yeah, they’re too busy running the 40-minute concealed carry Florida “courses”.)
These events provide a unique outreach opportunity for a group of NRA instructors to offer reduced or no cost training to those who show up, and leave the pawn and gun shop owners to dispose of their junk guns at taxpayer expense.
Not a buy back. The Government never owned these guns. Just more mindless vandalism of old and still useful items. Cars, Guns, and soon to come... Grandma.
More mushy headed, touchy-feely, limp wristed Euro-liberalism.
People like poster #8 and others turning in junk guns are doing a good deed when they drain the program of money that would have been used to “buy back” and destroy a perfectly good firearm.
They are paying junk prices for the guns and that is all they should get - junk.
Better, make a junk gun to be turned in from a bit of pipe, a nail, and wooden handle.
Reverse John Galt.
We used to make single shot .22 cal. zip guns from a piece of broken auto antenna, a piece of wood, a rubber band and a nail or screw.
Darn right. Good work, Sig!
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