Archive for January 27th, 2013

If I had a (non-functional) rocket launcher…

Sunday, January 27th, 2013

I’d make the Seattle Police Department pay. $100 for it. At the next gun buyback.

I’m amused at how often the “someone turned in a non-functional rocket launcher at a gun buyback” trope has been showing up in the mass media. At least this story mentions the non-functional aspect in the first sentence.

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.

Because paying $100 for an empty fiberglass tube makes the public safer. Way to go, guys.