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Santa Barbara buyback nets more than 200 guns

June 16, 2014

pellet gunSanta Barbara police collected nearly 240 guns Saturday in exchange for Vons gift cards and cash. [KEYT]

The police department held the city’s first gun buyback program in conjunction with The Coalition Against Gun Violence. Event organizers planned to exchange grocery store gift cards in exchange for unwanted guns, but they ran out of Vons cards and had to resort to offering cash to conclude the event.

Police said they plan to send the guns to Los Angeles for destruction.

Attendees of the buyback included Congresswoman Lois Capps and state senator Hannah Beth Jackson. Both Capps and Jackson are backing new gun control legislation following last month’s Isla Vista rampage left six students dead, three by way of shootings and three by stabbings.

Capps said neighborhoods are much safer because of Saturday’s buyback.

“I want to salute the Coalition Against Gun Violence,” Capps said.

Officials said they planned the buyback event months prior to the Isla Vista rampage.


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“Capps said neighborhoods are much safer because of Saturday’s buyback.” <— Is she honestly that obtuse?


A true embarrassment…


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http://www.policymic.com/articles/90013/australia-has-eliminated-gun-massacres-by-doing-what-the-u-s-doesn-t-have-the-guts-for


Take a good look at the graph provided: Gun ownership vs. gun deaths, by state.


One metric not given is total murders in Australia per 100,000 , which is right around 1 /100,000. That is about 20% of what the US figure is: 4.8 /100,000.


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Nice selective reporting. You forgot the stats on Jamaica, Trinidad, South Africa, Sierra Leone, the Philippines, Paraguay, Panama, Nicaragua, Mexico, Honduras, Guyana, Guatemala, and a bunch more countries. I wonder why?


Oh, that’s right, because that would “prove” the exact opposite, that draconian gun control laws increase violent crime. All of the above countries have HIGHER rates of murder by firearm than the US, and a fraction of the gun ownership rates.


In Jamaica, simply possessing a spent casing could get you “indefinite detention” i.e. a life sentence. Their per capita murder rate by firearm is more than 10X the rate here in the states.


You’ve got some reading to do. Come back after you’ve educated yourself.


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The other issue conveniently left out is the high percentage of gun homicides that are gang related. According to CDC gang homicides accounted for 8,900 of 11,100 gun murders in 2010 and 2011 in the US.


So is the problem the guns or the fatherless minority youth that comprise most gangs?


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No, the CDC did not report that (gang homicides) and repeating incorrect information is part of the problem.


Links or it never happened.


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What’s truly amazing is that if gun-related deaths from a HANDFUL of gun control enclaves (Chicago, NYC, Detroit, LA, etc.) are removed from the data, the US’s gun-related death number PLUMMET in the international rankings.


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You are not looking at the correct stats, do some research and find “Murder rates, before and after outlawing guns”. Murder rates don’t drop off. Of course if you take away guns, gun deaths will go down, that’s obvious. You need to look at the total homicide rate, which doesn’t change, or actually goes up, in countries that ban guns. People that kill don’t need a gun, there are knives, cars, bats, pipes, scissors, etc. However, it’s a lot easier to defend yourself with a gun rather than any of the a fore mentioned items.


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Just what we need more “emotional” government B.S.


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The Santa Barbara PD is now officially the dumbest PD on the Central Coast. Idiots.


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Whoopee, the junk gun purchasing program in Santa Barbara is now over! Tax payer money to purchase these guns is an economic loss for the city, but its a net profit gain in terms of publicity with the local press outlets and the sense that everyone should feel safer. BS!


These exchanges present absolutely no gain in terms of actual public safety because functioning weapons may have been taken in from well-intentioned but deceived law-abiding gun owners. Some “formerly armed” citizens are now less well-armed or even totally disarmed. As these citizens wave around their Von’s cards with pride as they purchase Cheetos and beer, they should have considered that even an old worn out gun that doesn’t even work, if brandished at an intruder, mighty have saved their property or life.


The simple math is that criminals prefer unarmed victims and they especially like unarmed and complacent victims. In the absence of any actual advance of public safety with these gun buy-back programs, the perception of advanced safety is all the worse.


You can be assured that no serious guns or “assault weapons” were taken off the streets of Santa Barbara, as average citizen Joe trades in their junk for petty cash. This program was nothing more than an expensive closet cleaning for a handful of SB residents pretending, along with the police, that they are now safer.


The criminals are smiling.


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Wow, this is a first, me and Ted agree! LOL


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A great way to dispose of an item and get 10% of what it’s worth! (at taxpayer expense)


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Awesome! There will be no more gun crime in Santa Barbara!


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committed with ‘those guns’! finished your sentence for you .


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“Capps said neighborhoods are much safer because of Saturday’s buyback.”


Holy crap! She is more senile than I thought.


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Glocks for groceries a huge success! Expand it to guns for gas, and for the women out there – handguns for handbags.


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Stupid feel good activity that does little to stop crime. Of course our “representative” thinks it’s just fab. They are always ready to capitalize on some tragedy that is clearly the result of a failed mental health care system and blame it on an inert object.


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