Author: Grumpy
U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- Gun turn-in events, labeled with the Orwellian term “buyback” are making a small comeback in the United States. Most of them are occurring in states where private sales are not allowed by law. They are not occurring in states which require the valuable property to be sold for the public’s benefit.
Illinois has a version of the law that requires private sales to go through the state website, identify the purchaser of the firearms with a Firearms Owner Identification (FOID), and be assigned an approval number. This eliminates privacy from private sales. It becomes unworkable for private purchasers to buy guns legally at gun turn-in events.
At the Evanston, Illinois event, 53 guns were turned in on December 4, 2021. From wgntv.com:
EVANSTON, Ill. — Evanston police held a gun buyback event on Saturday, just days after a shooting left four people wounded and one dead.
“It gets the guns off the street. Whether it’s one gun or five, today we had 53. It gets the guns off the street,” interim police chief Aretha Barnes said.
Today, citizens were given $100 for each gun and $25 for ammunition. The gun buyback began nine years ago.
“I’m a lifetime 5th Ward Evanston resident and I was concerned about the gun violence I was experiencing in the neighborhood, so I was planning to do a gun buyback,” organizer Carolyn Murray said.
The best academic study of these events shows they do not reduce homicide, gun crimes, or suicide. There is a small but statistically significant increase in crimes committed with guns in the two months after the event.
These events are propaganda, street theater, virtue signaling; they are symbolic, not pragmatic.
They are meant to send the message: Guns are bad. Turn them into the Police.
Eight of the 53 guns shown as turned in at the Evanston event were BB guns, CO2 guns, or spring-powered air guns. Presumably, the people who turned them in received $100 for each of them.
Private purchasers at gun turn-in events eliminate the propaganda value of these events. They show the opposite message:
Guns are good. We pay cash.
Private purchasers buy guns that are worth more than what the organizers of the event are willing to pay. It is a way for ignorant owners of guns, who want them out of their house, to get a closer approximation of what the gun is worth.
An original military-stocked 1903 Springfield rifle may have been turned in at the event (upper right corner). It could be worth several hundred dollars to a collector. Several other firearms worth hundreds of dollars each were turned in. They include what appear to be Glock handguns, a Remington model 11 shotgun, a pair of antique 7-shot .22 revolvers, a near-new .22 lever action rifle, and others.
If the motive of the organizers were to “get guns off the street”, they would welcome private purchasers. Private purchasers would stretch their money, moving guns from unwanted hands into the hands of responsible owners.
There was no indication of private buyers at the Evanston event. It appears the Illinois law worked to prevent private sales.
Ideally, the organizers of these events would sell the guns they obtain in ordinary commercial channels, then use the money to buy more guns from people who do not want them.
Moving guns from unwanted hands into responsible hands is not the intent. Destruction of the valuable property appears to meet an emotional need. Organizers want to shift responsibility for bad events from people to inanimate objects.
When faced with the option of selling the guns or not having a turn-in “buyback” event, organizers choose not to have the event.
About Dean Weingarten:
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.
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Merry Christmas! Grumpy
Springfield Armory is proud to announce the release of the new Operator 1911, an all-black pistol with some stainless steel highlights and machined G10 Army Green Alien grips by VZ.
“Springfield Armory 1911 pistols are renowned for their performance, strength and capabilities,” said Springfield Vice President Steve Kramer. “With this new Operator, shooters get a duty-grade 1911 with the features they expect from a premiere fighting pistol.”
Chambered for .45 ACP, the Operator feeds from slightly extended 8-round bumper magazines, and it comes with a very modern set of upgrades and features that really make this a “duty-grade” 1911.
The slide has classy, straight serrations front and rear, with small engravings on the sides that read “Operator” on the left side and “Springfield Armory” with the logo on the right. As far as controls go the Operator has extended ambidextrous safety levers and an extended beavertail grip safety with a memory button.
It also comes with a skeletonized, adjustable medium-length trigger with a serrated trigger face and a skeletonized hammer for a fast, accurate lock-up. Every operator is built around a 5-inch match-grade, hammer-forged stainless steel barrel and they use a conventional G.I.-style bushing and recoil assembly.
For sights, the Operator uses a tritium-powered front night sight and a tactical ledge-style white dot rear sight. Every Operator has a matte black Cerakote finish on the slide, frame, and small components and they all ship with two 8-round magazines.
The Operator was designed and built from the ground up to be a hard-working pistol for self-defense, with features that will make it perform just as well at the range. It’s also an all-around good-looking 1911, in a fully modern layout that doesn’t cut corners.
With a suggested retail price of $1,099, it’s likely that shoppers will be able to find the Operator in stores and online for $999 or less. For more information about the new Operator along with the rest of the Springfield catalog, head over there today.
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The Franchi LF58
The Franchi LF-58 is a gas operated, selective fire carbine that was the product of Italian domestic arms design after the Second World War and during the 1950s.
Development
Following the end of the Second World War, the Italian Armed Forces were equipped with weapons donated and/or sold to them by the United States of America, such as the M1 Garand, as their main service rifle. However, as there were other militaries beginning to develop assault rifles and modern battle rifles, both with larger magazine capacities and increased volumes of fire, the Italians naturally pushed for a more modern service weapon.
The M1 Carbine was well-liked among various Italian military circles and the development of the German StG-44 assault rifle chambered in the intermediate 7.92x33mm Kurz cartridge had already given several militaries notice. The Italians[who?] decided to design a select-fire weapon chambered in the American .30 Carbine round, being close enough to an intermediate cartridge and easier to acquire than others at the time.
Two large Italian arms firms, Pierto Beretta and Luigi Franchi, then began experimental work on improved automatic carbines chambered in the American .30 Carbine cartridge. Despite NATO announcing standardization towards the 7.62x51mm NATO cartridge, the firms continued development under the belief that it would take some time for the NATO cartridge to come into widespread use.
Both firms developed service rifles to adhere to NATO’s standards. Both designs were finished in 1958, resulting in the Beretta Model 57 and the Franchi LF-58 (which was not publicized). Both designs saw limited production and neither official adoption nor commercial success. The Italian Armed Forces then replaced the M1 Garand with the BM-59 battle rifle in 7.62x51mm NATO and the LF-57 submachine gun chambered in 9x19mm Parabellum