How many beautiful collector’s items have been destroyed in programs like this?

Gun advocates went on the offensive in Detroit when the police department decided to hold a gun buy-back event. They stood across the street with signs, encouraging people to sell them their guns for more money than the police were offering.

Not to many took them up on the offer:

Between the activists and residents awaiting to sell their unwanted guns, stood a row of five police in the center of the street.

“The police are obviously putting a wall, a barricade, between us and the people who are in line,” Ector said. “It’s a form of intimidation.”

Ector and others said gun buyback events unfairly “demonize” guns.

We want “to send the message that guns are not evil, despite what the government and police are saying,” Ector said “Guns do not cause crime; bad people cause crime.

“There’s a lot of reasons (gun buybacks) are flat out wrong. For one, it’s not going to change anything with regards to violent crime in the city of Detroit; two, potentially you have criminals who are destroying evidence along with the Detroit Police Department.”

In the church line stood Rick Ward, 47, who was selling his grandmother’s 410, bolt-action shotgun, which has sat dormant stored at his home for years.

I wonder how many drive by shootings that 410 has been a part of. How many robberies has it been used in?

What crime will this prevent in the future?

I would love to see this kind of event spread. If I had a pawn shop, I would send reps to every one of these I could find.

Some of the guns might be junk, but there might be some collector’s items being destroyed too.

Photo Credit: mikejmartelli