Friday, December 18, 2009

More on the Essex County Gun Buyback

The New Jersey Herald reports that the gun buyback program which had been suspended after running out of money is now back in business.

Essex County authorities say more than 400 guns were turned in Thursday as the prosecutor's office resumed a gun buyback program.

The program was suspended last month after local authorities burned through the $50,000 allocated for it in the first two days.

Essex County Prosecutor Paula Dow, recently nominated by Gov.-elect Chris Christie to be state attorney general, said she reallocated $75,000 seized from criminals to reinstate the program.

Those turning in guns could receive up to $200.

The program is to continue today.

Now there's an interesting piece of information. "...reallocated $75,000 seized from criminals to reinstate the program."

That should take care of one of the major complaints we hear about these programs, shouldn't it.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

3 comments:

  1. Here's a piece on a family massacred on the upper west dide in Manhattan today...

    http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local
    -beat/2-Dead-2-Hurt-in-Upper-
    West-Side-Shooting-79550517.html

    At first read, I don't see how laxer gun laws could have prevented this from turning inot anything lesser than the the horror it was....
    If anything, more guns could have exponentially increased the peripheral involvement...things are only neat and clean when they are choreographed by directors in movies.....

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  2. Where would the money seized from criminals go otherwise? It isn't like the only choices were between spending it on pushing a particular political agenda and giving it back to the criminals--it could have been used for police equipment or training, a victim's assistance fund, planting flowers...

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  3. Sevesteen, You're right the money is coming out of the public pocket one way or the other, but using the seized funds is a whole lot better than using taxes. Plus, the amounts are small. We're not talking about expensive programs.

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