Seattle Gun Buy Back Hijacked by Gun Dealers Offering Cash

Local news reports

The so-called gun show loophole which allows guns to be sold without a background check allowed private dealers to effectively hijack a weekend effort by Seattle police to get guns off the street.

Following the mass shooting at an elementary school in Connecticut last month, Seattle raised $120,000 to hold the first gun buyback effort in 20 years at a downtown parking lot on Saturday.

The plan was to trade gift cards for guns that would later be destroyed, but a number of dealers set up a mini-gun show just a block away in a effort to buy up the guns and keep them in circulation. 

“I pay cash, I don’t give Amazon gift cards,” one dealer told a gun seller in video captured by KING.
“It’s a historical firearm, I would hate to see it get destroyed,” a buyer remarked to another gun owner. “I’ll give you $100 cash for it.”

“I would rather see it turned back into the gun community here and used to promote shooting sports,” a dealer explained to KING.

Mason Vranish bought a rocket launcher off of a man who had come to trade it for a gift card, but police confiscated the weapon on the suspicion that it had been stolen from the U.S. military.