Fresno's 'cash for guns' hits its target

Fresno's 'cash for guns' hits its target

www.fresnobee.com

A first-ever "cash for guns" event at the Fresno Fairgrounds collected 447 guns in less than three hours Saturday before running out of gift cards to exchange for them.

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
abclocal.go.com




Mod Edit: Altered thread title to reflect actual article headline.
Please review link: Breaking Alternative News guidelines


[edit on 8/9/2009 by maria_stardust]

I first saw this on HLN and thought it was a good idea but couldnt it also be bad?

The news anchor said that people can turn in their guns anonymously and receive a gift card in return. Most of these guns are not what you would think according to the article. Some didnt look like guns the average citizen should even have but that's my opinion. I am all for getting guns like that off the street and these people did give them up on their own which is great, but the anonymous part is what bothers me. What if one of these guns was used in a crime? The article states they think a few were stolen, well dont they want to catch who stole them? What if the person who dropped it off stole it or committed a crime with it? Will they check these guns for fingerprints? I guess I have too many questions about this. It sounds like a good idea but for me these questions popped up first. I personally dont own a gun, heck I have never even handled one. What is everyone else's thought on this cash for guns trade going on in Cali?

The first link in additional link tells what each gun is worth. They did get 447 guns off the street in 3 hours! That is nuts. The money was donated and some was confiscated drug money.

Mods if this is in the wrong place move it. I wasnt sure where to put it.

www.fresnobee.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 8/9/2009 by mblahnikluver]

I honestly can't believe people would even consider giving their guns for gift certificates. Where I come from, guns are a way of life and we would rather trust ourselves with them than our own socialist government.

""IMO", as long as people happily and "VOLUNTARILY" turn in guns for whatever, I am good with it.

If you purchase or are given something, it is your.

Being yours, you have every right to keep it, use it or sell it.

I never understood these cash for guns programs really. Are they trying to get criminals to turn in their guns? The guns most criminals have are stolen anyways so it makes sense to encourage people to turn those in.

But are they also encouraging people to turn intheir legal guns? Why? I'm a legal responsible gun owner but I'd never turn any of them in. But then again I'm not desperate for a target gift certificate or anything. Anyone that desperate for a gift card has problems. Go get a damn job.

Anyways what I'm trying to say is it seems they are encouraging criminals to turn in their ILLEGAL weapons and then they are rewarding them for it... what the hell? And I live in CA and Fresno has a lot of gangs so I'm willing to bet a lot of people who turned in guns were gangbangers. But WHY are they rewarding them??

Also the anonymous thing seems kinda strange to me too. Like what the OP said what if someone did a crime right before turning the gun in? To me it kinda seems like rewarding these people for crimes.

Maybe I'm just analyzing it to much, lol.


[edit on 9-8-2009 by jeasahtheseer]

I honestly doubt a real gang member would be stupid enough to go to a cop and turn in a gun, especially in the US where everything you do can be monitored. On the news they even said they would check these guns to see if they were used in crimes. If a gun was used in a crime, then it will be wisely disposed of soon after.

These programs are designed to disarm civilians of their firearms and the civilians are all to happy to do it in these desperate times.

EDIT:

""IMO", as long as people happily and "VOLUNTARILY" turn in guns for whatever, I am good with it.

I consider it to be voluntarily when they walk into a cop shop and surrender their guns for absolutely no incentive. Usually when you sell something as valuable as guns for next to nothing, then you do it because you're desperate for money, you need to get rid of them ASAP, or if you don't know any better.

[edit on 9-8-2009 by Dimitri Dzengalshlevi]

[edit on 9-8-2009 by Dimitri Dzengalshlevi]

I be almost willing to bet most of the guns turned in were guns that didn't work and a gift card is worth more than what it would cost to fix or sell it.

That usually the way these things go, you have a few people that turn decent guns, but most of them are junk and not even worth the price of the gift card.

They had a guns for cash fiasco in Detroit about three years ago. Turn them in for $150.00 and no questions asked. They took no names or anyway to know who turned in what. They found six murder weapons tied to the murders of 8 people. Most of the rest where rusted hulks of metal that had been improperly stored and the rest plain junk that couldn't be used. That is what you get with most of these turn ins in the larger metropolitan areas! No gangbanger is going to turn in a usable weapon for cash when he can sell it for a lot more than the turn in price. These programs are nothing but feel good face time on the MSM. The police chiefs and city councils do it for their own political good. It does nothing for safety and wastes money! They are show pieces!

Zindo

I bought 4 black powder gun kits, assembled them, and turned them in for $175 each. I paid $30 per kit for a net profit of $145 per kit. No questions asked. I took my $700 and bought a really nice Glock.

Originally posted by Dimitri Dzengalshlevi
I honestly can't believe people would even consider giving their guns for gift certificates. Where I come from, guns are a way of life and we would rather trust ourselves with them than our own socialist government.

I thought that as well. I cant think of ONE person I know who would turn their gun in for a GC.
I just wanted to know how fellow ATS members felt about this since I myself dont even own one. I was watching another news outlet and some people were saying they were old guns that no longer worked so they gave it up. I know IF I had one I wouldnt trade it in for some GC.

reply to post by jeasahtheseer

This is what I was saying! I did see another news outlet say some will have ballistics tests done on them but my question is, if that gun was used in a crime how will they really know where it came from? Will they fingerprint these guns too? They had 447 guns turned in in under 3 hours, that is a lot of guns! They were giving out IOU's to people who showed up after all the cards were gone.

reply to post by Dimitri Dzengalshlevi


I personally think if your are dumb enough to be a gang banger then you can be dumb enough to turn in a gun for money. However thats just my opinion...
Yes I did see on another news outlet that they will test some of these guns which in all honestly if it has been used in a crime then what do they do?

Originally posted by ZindoDoone
They had a guns for cash fiasco in Detroit about three years ago. Turn them in for $150.00 and no questions asked. They took no names or anyway to know who turned in what. They found six murder weapons tied to the murders of 8 people. Most of the rest where rusted hulks of metal that had been improperly stored and the rest plain junk that couldn't be used. That is what you get with most of these turn ins in the larger metropolitan areas! No gangbanger is going to turn in a usable weapon for cash when he can sell it for a lot more than the turn in price. These programs are nothing but feel good face time on the MSM. The police chiefs and city councils do it for their own political good. It does nothing for safety and wastes money! They are show pieces!

Zindo

8 murders! Wow! Did they ever catch who did it as a result of having these guns??

As for gang bangers, I wouldnt put anything past them. If you want to be in a gang and act like a thug then I am sorry you have no intellect in my eyes and therefore I think they would do anything INCL turning in a weapon for a Target GC. Just watch the "worlds dumbest criminals" videos, they do DO stupid stuff and this is something I could see one doing...sorry just my opinion.

Originally posted by mblahnikluver
As for gang bangers, I wouldnt put anything past them. If you want to be in a gang and act like a thug then I am sorry you have no intellect in my eyes

Actually gangs are made up of very intelligent people, usually those who are treated like crap by the government and the rest of society and they find their only place among people with similar ideals and skills. Trust me, I'm close to these types of people (if not one myself) and I can tell you that in order to understand the truth about gangs, you aren't going to learn it from the twisted media.

Though I must make one thing clear, I'm experienced with Canadian gangs which is a big difference from American gangs that are usually based on race. Our gangs do not discriminate and they usually try to keep violence gang on gang only.

The best way to describe a gang is organized crime by regular people who are too smart to carry on boring and stupid lives while at the same time can't become involved in anything important like the military or national politics. They're raised to survive and fight, but their only battle is on the streets with other gangs and the police. They could really prove themselves in society if people gave them a real chance. It's sad but true.

reply to post by mblahnikluver


No actually because they don't take any ones name. They just take it in check it to make sure it's in a safe mode and unloaded and throw in on the pile. They took them back to the station and did tests on guns that could still be fired. The rest was junk and not usable!

Zindo

Selective Fire

If someone would rather own a gift certificate than a gun, I respect their judgment on that

reply to post by ZindoDoone


I have to agree...its all for show and probably mostly programing people to think its the "American Way" to turn them in. Makes the sheeple think they are safe in the hands of the NWO.

I wonder where the donation was from?

Strange how they have money to buy guns, but they have to give employees IOU's for there paychecks.

These so called "gun turn-ins" are not bad in general.

Pretty much a very high percentage of these weapons are either 1) Stolen 2) Old / Broken or 3) Owned by someone who is dumb as a rock because a pawn shop or gun store will pay more than that gift-card for any decent weapon.

So, Nothing Bad here in my opinion.

I won't complain if stolen or broken weapons are turned in. Nor will I complain if total idiots turn in one either. Win/Win in my opinion.

Now if they only get slick some time and pull a "to catch a predator" like show, have all the people who turn in stolen weapons get arrested... would make a fine Prime Time show.... LOL



[edit on 9-8-2009 by infolurker]

Anyone that wishes to turn their gun can mail it directly to me. There will be no gift certificate, but it will be off the street. In fact, one was given to me just a few days ago because the woman didn't want it in the house any more because she was afraid that a grandchild might get it and hurt herself.

[edit on 9-8-2009 by MBF]