United States Congresswoman Jackie Speier, flanked by elected officials and police chiefs on the Peninsula, hold a press conference during a gun buyback at the South San Francisco Courthouse in South San Francisco, Calif., on Saturday, April 13, 2013. Congresswoman Jackie Speier and police departments of South San Francisco, Daly City, San Bruno, Pacifica, Burlingame, Colma, Millbrae, Brisbane and Broadmoor participated in the gun buyback. Individuals that surrendered weapons received up to $100 cash for a hand gun, shotgun or rifle, and up to $200 cash for an assault weapon.(John Green/Staff)
Mercury News
You see what the difference is, right? The thousands attending the gun show are already gun owners, for the most part. Those turning in guns at the "buyback" are changing sides, in many cases. They are leaving the ranks of "gun owners" and joining the other team.Reflecting the deep divide over America's relationship with firearms, the Cow Palace was even more packed than usual Saturday for the start of this weekend's Crossroads of the West Gun Show, while just seven miles away gun owners lined up to turn their weapons into cash.William Bennett, 30, of Fremont, brought his 3-year-old daughter, Nouvelle, into the Cow Palace, where gun show organizers expect to see 10,000 to 12,000 paying customers this weekend -- three times the usual turnout. The organizers say the push for new gun restrictions in Congress and the California Legislature has sparked a gun and ammo rush.
As Nouvelle whacked at her dad with a plastic sword, Bennett considered the question of what it says about the Bay Area that a couple of hundred people lined up Saturday to turn in their pistols, hunting rifles, assault weapons and shotguns for cash at a government-sponsored gun buyback program while thousands more jammed into the gun show.
"The country's split down the middle over everything -- gays, abortion, culture," Bennett said. "With guns, it's always going to be an issue."
The gun buyback at the South San Francisco courthouse was the latest in a series held around the Bay Area since the December massacre of 20 children and six adults at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. It was organized by Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Hillsborough, who was shot five times in Jonestown, Guyana, in 1978 and is now a vice chairwoman of the Congressional Gun Violence Prevention Task Force.
As she stood behind dozens of guns that had been turned in during just the first hour, Speier cited a long list of recent shootings in the Bay Area and beyond. They "are a tragedy that we can do something about," she said.
This is another indication that in spite of all the bluff and rhetoric to the contraty, the gun-rights movement is doomed.
Oh, and before any of you gun apoligists say there were thousands at the gun show and only hundreds at the "buyback," this one was "the latest in a series held around the Bay Area since the December."
What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.
. . . the gun-rights movement is doomed.
ReplyDeleteHahahahahaha! Guess what, herbivore, the gun rights movement will still be going strong well after you and your vile progeny are dead.
At least the guns on that table are pointed in the right direction.
ReplyDeleteThey are soon to be pointed at a wall, with a squad of troops behind them, and their dissident former "owners" on the receiving end.
DeleteThis is a warning. Stand up! One day they (we) may make irreverent, semi-delusional proclamations, another day they will be marching down your street, with meek and passive omnipotence characteristic of leftists.
DeleteIt is laughable that the buyback goons need to hold a press conference to draw attention to their idiocy, yet the gun shows simply go about their business and draw a prodigious amount of people more than the jaw flappers.
ReplyDeleteWhy do you think that is?
orlin sellers
I see perhaps thirty guns on that table. The gun show--in California, where buying guns is a lot harder than the free states of this nation--expects three times the usual customers.
ReplyDeleteBut if fools who think that getting $100 or $200 for a gun is reasonable want to turn them in, go for it. Anyone that stupid is probably the kind of person who shouldn't have a gun. Besides, gun makers will gladly crank out plenty more.
Oh, and before any of you gun apoligists [sic--and buy the way, I'm not "apoligizing" for anything] say there were thousands at the gun show and only hundreds at the "buyback," this one was "the latest in a series held around the Bay Area since the December."
ReplyDeleteAnd how many of the "buyback" attendees were not "changing sides" to the voluntarily disarmed, as you so imaginatively hypothesize, but were instead honorable, decent, intelligent people, converting old, clunker guns into cash for better guns, ammo, youth training, etc.:
A central Illinois gun rights group, Guns Save Life (sometimes called the Champaign County Rifle Association) has perfected this strategy (for years, and years), collecting junk guns, selling them to the "buy back," and using the proceeds to fund such worthy efforts as youth shooting camps (building the next generation of gun rights advocates).
Perhaps the most satisfying aspect of this is how unhinged it renders "gun control" advocates. A Chicago Sun-Times editorial:
"The group, Guns Save Life, based in Champaign County, said they’d use the gift cards to buy ammunition and firearms for a youth program that teaches gun safety and marksmanship.
"Clever, huh?
"While in town, though, we have to wonder if the pro-gun group happened to read about Heaven, the 7-year-old girl who was killed last Wednesday by goofs with guns who shot into a crowd outside her mother’s house. And we have to wonder if they happened to catch the news about the eight other people killed over the weekend, including a 3-year-old boy, and the 17 who were wounded — all shot by people with guns."
One "liberal" publication went so far as to call Guns Save Life a "hate group."
Get it? Some hatemonger accuses Guns Save Life of being a "hate group"? Is that not the funniest damned thing you've ever seen?
Or maybe some of the attendees are like the guy at a New York "buyback" who took advantage of the "no questions asked" policy to turn in homemade zip guns, made from a few bucks worth of materials, in exchange for $200 gift cards. It would have been even more profitable if the racist NYPD cops hadn't violated their own advertised terms, and sent him away after allowing him to exchange only one of the zip guns.
I hate to break it to you, Mike, but that gun show was also the latestest on a series of gun shows that have been happening in the bay area for decades.
ReplyDeleteAnd furthermore, you don't think were at least several hundred new owners amidst the 10,000+ attendees to cancell out the turn-in crowd? Really?
Sure, Mike, we must all be lying about the people we've seen go to gun stores and gun shows to buy their first gun. That or we imagined it.
ReplyDeleteSorry, Mike, but your logic flies in the face of the experience of me and many other gun owners. We see many people buying their first guns. In my case, I've never seen so many first time buyers.
ReplyDelete