Columbus planning to hold another gun buyback event. But are these events effective?

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The city of Columbus is planning another gun buyback event this fall, citing the success of last year’s event.

Last year’s September gun buyback brought in 344 firearms. The city gave a total of $136,600 for those firearms. The idea is people bring guns they have and want rid of, turn them in and get money in return.

“If you sell them to other locations, you never know where that gun is going to end up. We know that a large majority of guns that end up in crime are stolen from either a car or a house,” said Rena Shak, executive director of the Office of Violence Prevention. “Last year we paid well above street value to incentivize people to bring those firearms in so we could have them destroyed.”

While the city gave out $136,600, there was still $106,225 left over from last year’s event. Shak attributes that leftover money to running out of time.

“It ended up taking us five and a half hours to process all of the cars that were in line at the end of those three hours. We ended up sending quite a few people home because we had to cut the line off for logistical reasons,” she said.

Columbus City Council will vote on Monday night to use those leftover gift cards for a gun buyback event tentatively planned for September 14. Shak said they are looking at what they can change to make this year smoother and serve more people.

“This year we’re looking at location. We want to make sure it’s somewhere central so everybody around the city has easy access to the location. Somewhere that has a large parking area that we can have two lines of cars to process as opposed to the one we had last year,” she said. “These gun buybacks take an incredible amount of officers from our CPD units to come in and help process. It takes lab technicians, the amount of manpower it takes for that period of time is way more than anyone would expect.”

A 2021 study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that while gun buyback programs are popular options among cities trying to fight gun violence, they don’t typically bring in enough firearms to offset the supply of new firearms to the market.

“We certainly understand that the guns we are recovering may not be all of the guns committing crimes in this city, but it’s one less gun that a child could get their hands on, it’s one less gun that could be left in a vehicle and get stolen, it’s one less gun that someone could self-harm with,” Shak said. “Any gun that we can take off the street, out of somebody’s house that’s unwanted, out of the hands of a child is a win for us.”

The amount offered also plays a factor. Shak said they opted to pay above market value for firearms turned in to incentivize people to participate.

New York changes gun buyback after seller gets $21,000 for 3D-printed parts
This article is more than 1 year old

Participant used a 3D printer to make firearm parts in bulk that he then exchanged for gift cards
Associated Press in New York
Tue 11 Oct 2022 15.47 EDT

The attorney general of New York has changed the rules of a state gun buyback program, after a participant exploited the system by using a 3D printer to make firearm parts in bulk that he then exchanged for $21,000 in gift cards.

The seller, who identified himself by a pseudonym, said he traveled from West Virginia to a gun buyback on 27 August in Utica, New York, to take advantage of a loophole in the program – and to demonstrate that buybacks are futile in an era of printable weapons.

At the buyback, the seller turned in 60 printed auto sears, small devices that can convert firearms into fully automatic weapons. Under the rules of the buyback, hosted by the office of the attorney general, Letitia James, and city police, that entitled him to $350 for each of the printed parts, including a $100 premium, since they were deemed “ghost guns” lacking serial numbers.
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The seller, who declined to provide his real name, said in an email on Monday the prospect of making money was enticing, but that the big reason he took part in the buyback was to send a message.

He called the idea of buybacks “ridiculously stupid”, adding that “the people running this event are horribly uneducated about guns, gun crime and the laws surrounding the regulation of guns”.

James’ office said it responded to the loophole by giving buyback personnel more discretion to determine the value of weapons being handed in, and setting a standard that all 3D-printed guns accepted by the program must be capable of being fired more than once.

The new rules were in place by 17 September, when the attorney general’s office hosted a gun buyback in a Syracuse suburb, Camillus.

“It’s shameful that this individual exploited a program that has successfully taken thousands of guns off the streets to protect our communities from gun violence,” the attorney general’s office said.

Buybacks are a popular way for government officials to try to get guns off the streets, typically with a promise of no questions asked and amnesty for anyone who turns in an illegal weapon.

Some firearms turned in are legally owned. Others are relinquished by people who aren’t allowed to own weapons or are turning in guns that have been illegally altered.

The rule change by James comes as state and federal officials attempt to deal with the proliferation of ghost guns. Joe Biden announced in April changes to the definition of a firearm under federal law to include unfinished parts, which would include those made by 3D printers.

The New York attorney general’s office has been hosting buybacks since 2013. James has warned that ghost guns are fueling a “gun violence epidemic” and sees buybacks as part of the solution, as do police forces in Syracuse and elsewhere.

“We have partnered with local police throughout the state to recover more than 3,500 guns, and one individual’s greedy behavior won’t deter us from fighting for public safety for all New Yorkers,” James’s office said.

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