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On Friday and Saturday, the state Attorney General's office, working with the Essex County Prosecutor's Office, local clergy and police in Newark Orange, Montclair and other communities, hosted a gun buyback program which allowed owners to turn in weapons for a cash payment of up to $250 each.
Under the program, an owner could turn in a weapon without fear of criminal charge at houses of worship throughout the county.
Officials say the buyback program gets thousands of weapons off the streets safely, without endangering law enforcement, which generally seizes weapons one or a few at a time. The program also gets weapons out of homes, where they may be used in suicides or domestic violence. Ninety-five percent of the weapons turned over in Essex County were in good working order, and many were illegal to own.
But do the buybacks work, or do they simply provide an owner with the cash to upgrade to a new weapon? Register your opinion in our poll and feel free to expand on your opinion in the comments.
Saundra Robinson
3:40 pm on Wednesday, February 20, 2013
I think gun buybacks work for the purpose they were designed. Getting some more guns off the streets. Everyone is not going out buying more guns (except those NRA proponents of having 15 guns in their house to "spite" the President's efforts to get guns off the streets.) We still need criminal background checks as well as closing other loopholes in the laws already on the books esp concerning gun shows, etc.
However, it is interesting that we can find money to get guns off the streets but cannot find any money to establish after school programs for our youth or to buy supplies for our students or to build more schools or create scholarships. I'm just saying.
A. Newarker
3:40 pm on Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Sure the buybacks work - for the criminals looking to dispose of a firearm they used in a crime. No ballistics test, No records check. What could a gunman ask for more?