Massive response overwhelms Seattle's gun buy-back
»Play Video
SEATTLE - The city's first gun buy-back program in 20 years was a victim of its own success Saturday - turning away people more than three hours early after a huge turnout used up all the gift certificates available.
But police said no one should fret if they didn't make it to Saturday's buy-back because others are planned for the near future.
A huge crowd of hundreds of people flocked to the special buy-back program, creating a traffic jam in downtown Seattle as people eager to exchange their weapons for gift cards made their way to the drop-off site under Interstate 5.
KOMO News reporter Mark Miller, at the scene, said several hundred gun owners showed up to turn in their weapons and receive the gift certificates in return.
The massive turnout clogged traffic on Sixth Avenue and on an I-5 off-ramp leading to the buy-back area, located in a parking lot underneath the freeway between James and Cherry streets.
Scalpers offering cash for guns held up signs on surrounding streets, trying to tempt gun owners before they reached the official drop-off point.
The buy-back originally was scheduled to continue through 3 p.m. But at 11:45 a.m., police were forced to turn away anyone who wasn't already in line as they started running low on gift cards.
Participants received a gift card worth up to $100 for each handgun, rifle or shotgun turned in. Assault weapons could be worth twice as much. And additional gift cards were given for high-capacity magazines that come with the guns.
The objective of the buy-back is to reduce gun violence.
"If we can prevent just one child, one innocent bystander, from being the victim of a random accident or the target of an unstable person, it will be well worth our time and effort," says King County Executive Dow Constantine.
But not everyone is convinced the tactic will work - they say criminals with guns are in no rush to turn them in. And in fact, statistics show a previous effort in Seattle failed to prevent shootings.
The last time a buy-back program was held in Seattle - in 1992 - about 1,100 weapons were turned in. But in the six months that followed, the average number of firearms-related homicides increased. The mean number of firearms-related assaults in Seattle also increased, as did the mean number of robberies with guns. Even the average number of accidental shooting deaths more than doubled, according to data in a government journal.
Most of the weapons turned in Saturday were rifles - although some were old or no longer operational. But there one or two assault weapons. The most unusual weapon turned in was a military surface-to-air missile launcher, a single-use military device that had already been fired and was no longer functional. The owner turned it in and received a gift card.
David Daily, a gun owner who came to the buy-back, said he turned in two rifles because he has inherited several guns over the past couple of years and has no need for so many. He wants to make sure none of the weapons wind up in the wrong hands.
"For me this is the short way to know that the guns I don't want are safely disposed of," he says. "I would never want one of my guns to be stolen or sold to a private dealer and end up in the hands of a criminal."
Once the guns are collected, police plan to check serial numbers to see if any are stolen. If so, they will not contact the person who turned in the weapon. Instead, they will contact the gun's registered owner and see if that person wants their firearm returned to them or destroyed.
Nearly $120,000 was raised to buy back the weapons and ammunition by the Seattle Police Foundation, nonprofits, the University of Washington Medical Center, private businesses such as Amazon.
A program supported by Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll, known as "A Better Seattle," also donated $10,000 to back the effort to get weapons off the streets.
But police said no one should fret if they didn't make it to Saturday's buy-back because others are planned for the near future.
A huge crowd of hundreds of people flocked to the special buy-back program, creating a traffic jam in downtown Seattle as people eager to exchange their weapons for gift cards made their way to the drop-off site under Interstate 5.
KOMO News reporter Mark Miller, at the scene, said several hundred gun owners showed up to turn in their weapons and receive the gift certificates in return.
The massive turnout clogged traffic on Sixth Avenue and on an I-5 off-ramp leading to the buy-back area, located in a parking lot underneath the freeway between James and Cherry streets.
Scalpers offering cash for guns held up signs on surrounding streets, trying to tempt gun owners before they reached the official drop-off point.
The buy-back originally was scheduled to continue through 3 p.m. But at 11:45 a.m., police were forced to turn away anyone who wasn't already in line as they started running low on gift cards.
Participants received a gift card worth up to $100 for each handgun, rifle or shotgun turned in. Assault weapons could be worth twice as much. And additional gift cards were given for high-capacity magazines that come with the guns.
The objective of the buy-back is to reduce gun violence.
"If we can prevent just one child, one innocent bystander, from being the victim of a random accident or the target of an unstable person, it will be well worth our time and effort," says King County Executive Dow Constantine.
But not everyone is convinced the tactic will work - they say criminals with guns are in no rush to turn them in. And in fact, statistics show a previous effort in Seattle failed to prevent shootings.
The last time a buy-back program was held in Seattle - in 1992 - about 1,100 weapons were turned in. But in the six months that followed, the average number of firearms-related homicides increased. The mean number of firearms-related assaults in Seattle also increased, as did the mean number of robberies with guns. Even the average number of accidental shooting deaths more than doubled, according to data in a government journal.
Most of the weapons turned in Saturday were rifles - although some were old or no longer operational. But there one or two assault weapons. The most unusual weapon turned in was a military surface-to-air missile launcher, a single-use military device that had already been fired and was no longer functional. The owner turned it in and received a gift card.
David Daily, a gun owner who came to the buy-back, said he turned in two rifles because he has inherited several guns over the past couple of years and has no need for so many. He wants to make sure none of the weapons wind up in the wrong hands.
"For me this is the short way to know that the guns I don't want are safely disposed of," he says. "I would never want one of my guns to be stolen or sold to a private dealer and end up in the hands of a criminal."
Once the guns are collected, police plan to check serial numbers to see if any are stolen. If so, they will not contact the person who turned in the weapon. Instead, they will contact the gun's registered owner and see if that person wants their firearm returned to them or destroyed.
Nearly $120,000 was raised to buy back the weapons and ammunition by the Seattle Police Foundation, nonprofits, the University of Washington Medical Center, private businesses such as Amazon.
A program supported by Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll, known as "A Better Seattle," also donated $10,000 to back the effort to get weapons off the streets.
Scalpers??? Just how are the private buyers scalpers when they are offering MORE cash for the guns than the police are? I think you Komo Staff got things just a wee bit backwards here. Sounds like the ones turning in their guns are getting a better deal from the private buyers, and are taking it. Exactly what is wrong with that? It's called free-enterprise.
Â
The people turning in guns are not likely to be criminals. Criminals like to hold on to their guns to do their thing, like you know, committing crimes with them. And...with there being many millions of guns in this country, the chances of a crime being prevented by the turning in of any of these guns to the police is practically nil. In fact, it would seem like the person turning in their gun would make it easier for them to become a victim of crime. Criminals prefer those who do not have the ability to fight back.
Â
In Georgia, the College Park Police Dept is holding a buyback Feb. 9th from 9am - 5pm. Y'all come and make some deals!
Â
Â
Buy back programs do not reduce gun related crimes. These types of things are only good for publicity. The majority of guns turned in were hunting rifles and shotguns, and most of those were relics or broken, (I donât think anyone turned in an assault rifle) so there is no real impact on crime. If the police have not notice most crime were committed by handguns that can be concealed, when was the last time a person was robbed with a musket or a bolt action rifle? To get handguns off the streets the police would need to offer more $ for handguns, I rather see 500 handguns gone vs 1000 rifles.
Â
I understand that rifles (assault) are usually the weapons of mass shootings but handguns are still the root of most murders. Â Donât get me wrong I am all for gun ownership (in responsible hands) I just see the direction of the government going about it (right now) is wrong.
So if your mom is house sitting for you while you're in Hawaii, lock your guns up if she's a flaming liberal nut job that thinks you shouldn't own a rifle that shoots .223 in a semi automatic fashion.Â
Assault weapons ARE rifles, why do they keep trying to make an artificial distinction between them?
What bugs me most about this *isn't* that I don't think these folks have eery right to dispose of their property as they see fit.
Â
How would you like to see someone turning in to a book-burning a first edition Mark Twin book they had inherited because it was old and warn and contained objectionable words like "ni**er", in exchange for a gift card? Or as a computer geek, seeing someone trashing a working IMSAI 8080? Or if you were an artist, watching someone tossing an original Ruben's because it had bare breasts? Or someone destroying a hundred-year-old hand-made cuckoo clock because it was noisy and didn't keep time as well as their Casio?
Â
It's not that I don't think people have the right to dispose of their own property as they see fit- it's that I see it as so amazingly wasteful, and shows no respect or understanding of what they have.
This comment has been deleted
 @OrcasThunder Please get the quote right. I said that it IS NOT that I don't think they have the right. They DO. The word you left out is *important*. I just think it's misguided.
Â
If a gun is unsafe, and of no significant historic value, then by all means recycle its steel. But a working gun is an asset, with some intrinsic value and use (if not to you, then to SOMEone), just like a book, a picture, or computer, and destroying it for symbolic reasons is really what "fetish" is about (look up the word).
Â
I can buy a bolt action .30-06 no problem. Plastic stock, good steel, reasonable price. It doesn't have the same value to me, or a collector, as the old Enfield ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M1917_Enfield ) of my dad's that I took my first deer with. (That particular rifle also took several other people's first deer, moose, and mountain goats). I have the complete works of Twain on a kindle. I value more highly my 1917 print copy that my grandma picked up in the Depression before moving west.
Â
I value knowing and understanding the history AS WELL AS the function of an object. Some of those guns in the video looked like pretty common mil-surp. No great loss. One looked like a very classic sort of double-barrel shotgun that might be worth a fair piece to a collector.
 @RN1 If it belonged to them... then it is their lawful and constitutional right. Or do you favor a socialized approach to rare books, priceless artworks, ancient computers and rare old guns? "We're sorry, but your gun is TOO SIGNIFICANT to be owned privately: THE GOVERNMENT will have to take possession of it in a museum to preserve it for your and others' grandchildren to see!"
If they want to throw their guns away in return for a $100 gift card, what the h..l business is that of you or or me - so long as the gun is not on the list of guns stolen somewhere? (And these guns will be checked - be sure of it!)
 @JLS1950  @RN1 Why are you still here JLS? You couldn't even be bothered to read the article, and you denied that it said gun violence went up last time. Then when you were caught in your lie you tried to say I was "misinterpreting the data." Tell me, how do you misinterpret more gun crimes? Then you tried saying it was due to a national "trend." Thing is, it doesn't matter what's happening nationally, if the gun buy backs are supposed to reduce crime then it should have worked here locally.Â
Â
Here's a liberal source admitting they fail:
"A Harvard University study dating from the mid-1990s concluded that buybacks were largely ineffective in reducing gun violence because they weren't getting the right kinds of weapons off the street."
 @NWCoin  @RN1 First of all, this "A Harvard University study" - do you have the actual study itself, or merely someone's offhand reference to it without specific attribution? Best evidence here would be the study itself - not merely some commentator's reference to an anonymous "Harvard University study".
Secondly, this reference (which seems to be copied all over the Internet, primarily I think by right wing pro-gun groups) DOES NOT seem even to be CLAIMED to draw any causative statement between gun buy-backs and INCREASED gun violence: it only seems claimed to deny a causative effect between the buy-backs and DECREASED gun violence. In other words, it does not substantiate your claim that a prior gun buy-back "lead to [sic]" increased gun violence.
Finally, the entire gist of your posts seems to be that because I do not agree with your unsubstantiated claims, therefore *I* do not have any right to state my own opinions or to refute your unsubstantiated claims made here.
Argumentum ad hominem is widely accepted as being the last refuge of an unprepared advocate defending a lost cause. I recommend that you learn to stop arguing against your opponents' character or rights, and learn to argue to the specific viewpoint you wish to defend by citing actually-substantiated evidence that others can examine and verify without resort to your special crystal ball...
 @JLS1950 Like I said, I think they have the right. I used comparable destruction of books, art, and historic hardware that many readers here might be able to relate to, in order to get across to those that like seeing the guns destroyed why those of us that DON'T see it as so wasteful, pointless, and stupid. If you still don't get it... *shrug* not everyone understands history, economics, crime stats, or appreciates machinery.
Again I will ask how many of these firearms were in working order.
If 300 were turned in, I'd be suprised if 30 actually functioned.
Too bad we'll never know. >sigh<
Â
But it was a monumental success.
Â
 @bobalouie I am quite certain they would all work just fine for committing a robbery if they fell into the hands of criminals! How many robberies are committed with defective guns, unloaded guns and even plastic replicas and airsoft guns? Check it out!
@JLS1950@bobalouie
Why are you still here JLS? You couldn't even be bothered to read the article, and you denied that it said gun violence went up last time. Then when you were caught in your lie you tried to say I was "misinterpreting the data." Tell me, how do you misinterpret more gun crimes? Then you tried saying it was due to a national "trend." Thing is, it doesn't matter what's happening nationally, if the gun buy backs are supposed to reduce crime then it should have worked here locally.Â
Â
Here's a liberal source admitting they fail:
"A Harvard University study dating from the mid-1990s concluded that buybacks were largely ineffective in reducing gun violence because they weren't getting the right kinds of weapons off the street."
Â
@bobalouie hopefully monday there will be something, but wait? who's working overtime to classify all the recieved guns? was that time donated too? maybe wednesday? don't want to make them work on Sunday.
 @bobalouie according to KINGTV all of them.....they all had to be in full working order.
 @nwlib You are surely kidding. The article clearly states that several of the guns, and the empty rocket launcher, were not functional. Yet, the police gave away money for the crap. Not my concern. What does concern me is your willingness to suck up all that passive kool-ade, while you accuse reasonable people of being paranoid. You refuse to see logic when it is clearly presented to you. That is the very definition of delusional.
@JLS1950@SargeMcC@nwlib
Why are you still here JLS? You couldn't even be bothered to read the article, and you denied that it said gun violence went up last time. Then when you were caught in your lie you tried to say I was "misinterpreting the data." Tell me, how do you misinterpret more gun crimes? Then you tried saying it was due to a national "trend." Thing is, it doesn't matter what's happening nationally, if the gun buy backs are supposed to reduce crime then it should have worked here locally.Â
Â
Here's a liberal source admitting they fail:
"A Harvard University study dating from the mid-1990s concluded that buybacks were largely ineffective in reducing gun violence because they weren't getting the right kinds of weapons off the street."
Â
 @SargeMcC  @nwlib Passive Kool-Aid - Active Kool-Aide - what's the REAL difference beyond the URL of origin?
 @nwlib  @bobalouie Really? The police test-fired each of them? Are you insane?Â
 @nwlib  @NWCoin  @bobalouie Yes, you do need to first have a firearm checked by a qualified gunsmith and then live fired. Just because you pull the trigger and it goes "click" means absolutely nothing. You are the reason people need to know their subject material before they put things in print.
 @nwlib  @NWCoin  @bobalouie You sound awfully upset over a few comments on the internet. I hope there's room for you in your Nazi-Germany style evaluation room. You cannot always tell whether a firearm works or not on sight alone, or your interpretation of it's function.
@nwlib Dry fire doesn't guarantee the gun works.Â
 @nwlib  @bobalouie You're a fool if you think by merely looking at a gun you know if the barrel hasn't gotten flaws, or if the parts move smoothly.Â
 @NWCoin  @bobalouie Are you that big of an IDIOT... You dont need to live fire a gun to know it is fully functioning.. You are the very reason there needs to be background checks and long term mental evaluations before someone gets a firearm in their hands. You have repeated the same crap over and over at least 8 times today on theses boards... YOU HAVE ISSUES.
Â
Â
 @NWCoin  @nwlib  @bobalouie Yes......nwlib IS insane :)
My question is does anyone think that the bad guys showed up to turn their guns in...I would suggest that those who turned their guns in are law abiding people...hoping that when they call 911 the cops will come with their guns...do they realize that only those who are deviants will soon be the only ones with guns...
 @dustysworld Whether the bad guys showed up is really not the point, dusty. It could have been the bad guys' mommies and daddies, aunts, girlfriends, p-o'd former goombahs, stiffed former landlords, would-be-but-now-won't burglary victims... Or it may be the parent of a depressed teen or troubled young man with thoughts of mass-murder "suicide". The point here is that THESE guns will not be used to kill or injure or even threaten anyone - ever - after this.
And some people actually seem to find that idea offensive...!
 @JLS1950  @dustysworld They will ALSO never be used to put meat on the table, shoot targets for fun, be given to a grandson or nephew as a first gun when they become an adult, or defend a life, or hold a place over a mantel as a historic piece. Potential *gains* are lost, as well as potential evils.
 @JLS1950  @dustysworld It is really an interesting dichotomy at work here- these same people who insist that the gun is "just a tool" are now showing their other side...they are anthropomorphizing the "tool" into a holy relic, they are saying that any gun destroyed is a blasphemy...
There is probably a scientific name for the disorder, soon they are going to want to marry their guns...
 @dustysworld They were all bad guy's, they had gun's right. They didn't get nothing off the street. Just cash
 @dustysworld Interesting comment about deviants and guns... might explain much here.
 @JLS1950  @dustysworld Why are you still here posting comments? You embarassed yourself by denying that these buybacks lead to increased gun violence and death even though it says so in this article that you are commenting on. Please go away and try to learn to read.
@JLS1950 @NWCoin @dustysworld Chicago has the strictest gun laws (for law abiding citizens) and the one of the highest records of gun violence for American cities. I think that record speaks for itself. Take guns away from honest, law abiding citizens that want them only to protect themselves, their families, and their homes and that leaves the illegal guns in the hands of criminals who's main reason to have a gun is to inflict harm on those who get in the way of their crimes.  Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out!
 @JLS1950  @dustysworld The last time a buy-back program was held in Seattle - in 1992 - about 1,100 weapons were turned in. But in the six months that followed, the average number of firearms-related homicides increased. The mean number of firearms-related assaults in Seattle also increased, as did the mean number of robberies with guns. Even the average number of accidental shooting deaths more than doubled, according to data in a government journal.
Â
ROFL, there's a "government journal" source for you, libtard,Â
 @NWCoin  @dustysworld Feeling threatened there, Dale? You never really answered my request for a source - finally only pointing to your own misinterpretation of the article text - extrapolating wildly to make it "prove" something that it does not and cannot say at all.
Go dig up some real evidence that these buyouts "cause" greater violence. Then I will think you are blowing more than a smokescreen.
 @dustysworld Who cares... it an bad gun off the streets
The guns that were turned in most likely would have never made it to the streets. I saw old guns on TV that the seller could have got more money for. This was a Band-Aid to make fools think something good was happening.
 @Jerry "to make fools think something good was happening"
And even "fools" are entitled to dispose of their property as they see fit...WITHOUT being called "fools" for doing it.
Pull your head self righteous fool.
 @OrcasThunder  @Jerry I agree they have the right to turn their guns in, i have the right to keep mine...i think gun buy backs are great, i just wonder how many criminals turned theirs in.....just a thought
 @JLS1950  @Jerry He obviously meant that the people who are criminally inclined to misuse a gun didn't turn them in.
 @Jerry "The wrong people turn guns in."
Oh! The people who WANT to turn guns in aren't SUPPOSED TO, is that it? Only the people who DON'T want to are supposed to turn their guns in? My, how convenient THAT would be! (Most of the loudmouths here would be disarmed!)
Hello Mcfly that was my point. Put down the crack pipe. The wrong people turn guns in.
Â
 @dustysworld  @OrcasThunder  @Jerry And the answer is...............ZERO!
 @dustysworld  @Jerry "i just wonder how many criminals turned theirs in."
Well, if they bought one for $56 like someone posted, and could get $100, I would suspect quite a few.
Plus, if you have a gun used in a crime, what better way o get rid of it - and get paid by the cops?
 @JLS1950  @dustysworld  @OrcasThunder  @Jerry I can tell you exactly why the causality works -- idiot criminals, as well as the dumb libtards who sponsor these events, assume that after the event is over there are less guns out there to oppose them, so they attack and kill more people. This is the same reason psychos target gun-free zones like schools, because they think noone will be there to shoot back at them.
Â
The less guns that criminals think are in society, the more they prey on people. Are you really too dense to figure this out?
 @NWCoin  @dustysworld  @OrcasThunder  @Jerry Article says nothing of the sort that you claim. You say "lead to" whereas the article merely say "followed by" at at a six-month interval and during an election year and a change of administration. The article does not state if the spike was local or national.
It is YOU who elect to infer a cause-effect relationship here where none is evident. I suppose if your child went to school and was served pizza for lunch - and later that week came down with the flu - you would perhaps claim proof that pizza carries an influenza pathogen...?
 @JLS1950  @NWCoin  @dustysworld  @OrcasThunder  @Jerry haha, what's the matter? all quiet now that reality and facts don't jive well with your libtarded view of how the world is "supposed to work" eh?
 @JLS1950  @dustysworld  @OrcasThunder  @Jerry You must be very embarrassed to not even bother reading the article before commenting over and over on it.Â
@JLS1950@dustysworld@OrcasThunder@Jerry
My god, you are blind. IT'S IN THIS VERY ARTICLE THAT YOU ARE COMMENTING ON. SCROLL UP A FEW TIMES AND YOU'LL SEE IT.
Â
Typical libtard didn't even read the article before he shot his mouth off.
 @NWCoin  @dustysworld  @OrcasThunder  @Jerry I believe I asked you for a source: have you provided that?
 @JLS1950  @dustysworld  @OrcasThunder  @Jerry You seem to ignore that this has no effect on gun violence at all... When I pointed out to you that the last time they did this is it actually led to MORE gun violence you just went quiet. So, given that these gun buy-backs actually lead to more violence, what are you going to tell the victims? That you're pointless, symbolic "buy back" was worth their loved-one's life?
 @dustysworld  @OrcasThunder  @Jerry Well, any that they did won't be used in crime again, now, will they?