New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Criticizes Buffalo Gun Buyback Program

as Waste of Resources

TROY, NY (05/29/2007)(readMedia)-- On June 2nd the city of Buffalo, under Mayor Byron W. Brown, will spend $40,000 in asset forfeiture funds and contributions from the Erie County Medical Center on an ill-conceived gun buyback program. The New York State Rifle & Pistol Association considers this a shameful waste of money and resources that could be better used to fight crime and improve the lives of Buffalo's citizens.

Gun buyback programs are not a new idea. They allow anyone to exchange a gun for cash, with no questions asked. Since these programs address guns, and not the criminals who misuse them, their usefulness as a crime-fighting tool has never been proven.

Most of the guns received in these programs are old and disused. They present a threat to no one. Some, the NYSRPA fear, are crime guns that criminals are happy to give up since they cannot be traced back to the person who turns them in. Moreover, the cash received for them can be used to finance the purchase of a new crime gun -- certainly not what mayor Brown has in mind, but a very real possibility. For these reasons the NYSRPA urges Buffalo, and the rest of New York State, to focus on crime and criminals, not on useless and wasteful gun buyback programs.

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