1 Time is ripe for a local gun buyback program to succeed
South County is fortunate, perhaps even lucky, that it does not have the problems of gun violence that exist in some other Bay Area communities. However, both in Morgan Hill and Gilroy, we have experienced murders and other crimes in which guns were used.
While the national discussion on firearms is developing, many communities around the country have begun undertaking gun buyback programs. These programs create an opportunity for those who own these weapons to voluntarily surrender them with no questions asked, in return for cash, often $100.
Gun buyback programs are enormously successful. In fact, a buyback program now underway in Marin County has been too successful and has run out of money, while many residents are still waiting to take advantage of it. Programs in Oakland and some other East Bay communities have also exhausted their funding.
The gun buyback programs are not confiscatory. No one is ordering people to turn in weapons and no agency is seizing those owned legally by citizens. The programs are fully voluntary and create safe and sane opportunities for people who no longer want to own their guns to voluntarily turn them in. The programs simply get these weapons off the street and eliminate the potential to have them wind up in the hands of criminals.
It would be a positive move for the Morgan Hill Police Department in cooperation with the the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s office, to join the other cities and counties around the country that are offering gun buyback programs.
2 Funds available in Morgan Hill to support the effort
In Morgan Hill, the police department has the benefit of financial support of the volunteer-based Community Law Enforcement Foundation. The foundation could make a grant to the city of $10,000 or $20,000 to accommodate the cost of a gun buyback program, at no expense to the city budget.
3 A few hundred weapons off the street is a good thing
It could be done at one of CLEF’s regularly scheduled community events, where the police could also provide free trigger locks to those gun owners who would like to add another measure of safety to the weapons they keep in their homes.
From what we have learned about what happened in Newtown, Connecticut, a gun buyback program would not have stopped the massacre of 20 first grade students and six teachers and school employees. Gun buyback programs do provide a solution to those who no longer want their guns. By removing a couple of hundred weapons from circulation, a gun buyback program is a step that helps make our communities a little bit safer.
