PA Bill Number: HB335
Title: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons.
Description: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons. ...
Last Action: Re-committed to APPROPRIATIONS
Last Action Date: May 6, 2024
NYPD holding fewer gun buyback events :: 12/21/2015
Gun buybacks are shooting blanks. The NYPD held only two buybacks this year — a reflection of the belief among police brass and city pols that the events are ineffective when it comes to preventing gun violence.
“It’s always good to get guns off the street — I think getting any gun is good,” said City Councilman Jumaane Williams (D-Brooklyn). “But I don’t know if they’re the most effective way to deal with gun violence.”
New York Daily News Illustration
The NYPD held only two buybacks this year.
Figures provided to the Daily News by the NYPD show that in 2013, the department held 11 events around the city and got 693 guns off the streets.
In 2014, the NYPD held eight events, where police bought 282 guns — no questions asked.
In 2015, only two buybacks were held, resulting in 88 guns sold to the NYPD.
The events — which give a person around $200 for each firearm — usually provide an eye-popping look at the variety of weapons bought by cops. District attorneys and City Council members who work with the NYPD tout the achievement.
But a breakdown of buybacks since 2010 shows the events were more favored by former Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, who did not respond to a request for comment.
Between 2010 and 2013, 31 events brought in 4,635 guns.
But NYPD brass and other pols say even those impressive stats may not add up to victory in the fight against gun violence.
“Sometimes you may get guns that are inoperable. You may get some rifles — guns that are not really used in the type of gun violence in the city we’re going after,” said Williams.
Brooklyn community activist Tony Herbert said the people swapping weapons for cash usually aren’t the troublemakers pulling the trigger in the street.
Kevin C. Downs/for New York Daily News
Any measure that keep guns from criminals or children can save lives, says District Attorney Kenneth P. Thompson seen here at a press conference, August 17, 2015.
Todd Maisel/New York Daily News
Councilman Jumaane Williams (speaking at anti-violence rally this summer) likes getting guns off streets.
“The modern-day dude is using these high-tech guns — .44s and automatics,” Herbert said. “Some of the people bringing in guns are maybe a mom or dad who found one under the bed.”
Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson disagreed, saying that the Dec. 5 event in East Flatbush he helped coordinate with the NYPD resulted in 60 buybacks of firearms typically used in street violence.
“The event advanced our shared goal of eliminating gun violence. Any measure that prevents guns from falling into the hands of criminals or children can save lives,” Thompson said through a spokesman.
Craig Warga/New York Daily News
Guns purchased by the NYPD in 2012 through a buyback program are put on display.
The NYPD did not respond to inquiries regarding why it has held fewer buybacks.
But at an October event on gun policy NYPD Deputy Commissioner Susan Hermann said the events attract out-of-towners looking to make easy money.
The belief among police brass and city politicans is that the buyback events are ineffective when it comes to preventing gun violence.
“It has minimal impact,” she said, according to The New York Observer. “Typically when we do gun buybacks, actually they’re often people from other states coming to give us — Pennsylvania, New Jersey people — coming into New York to sell their guns. That’s a good thing — it’s good for America to get more guns off the street. It doesn’t particularly reap a lot of benefits here in New York.”
All five city district attorneys said they support buybacks, but called them just one method to keep guns off the street.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nypd-holding-gun-buyback-events-article-1.2472317
