Is gun buyback criminal?
In the Associated Press article “Seattle gun buyback draws crowd (Jan. 27)” we find the following: “In the six months after Seattle’s 1992 gun buyback – the city’s only other such effort – 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 mean number of accidental shooting deaths more than doubled, according to data in a government journal.”
So, what exactly did Seattle leaders expect to accomplish by having another buyback on Jan. 26? Reduce crime? On the contrary, they apparently wanted crime to increase, because readily available data clearly demonstrate that efforts to get guns off the street ultimately do exactly that!
Is this not criminal?
Michael Miller
Spokane