Amazon’s latest deal is about more than just discounts.
Amazon has a hot new deal for the gun owning citizens of Seattle. If you turn in your handgun, shotgun, or rifle you will get a $100 gift card, and for an assault weapon $200. The deal is part of the Seattle-King County Gun Safety Initiative. The Seattle Police Department has organized a gun buyback which will be on January 26, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. near City Hall. According to geekwire.com,
Amazon is donating $30,000 in gift cards for trade to people who turn in their guns. Thanks to contributions from Amazon, the Seattle Police Foundation ($25K), Nick and Leslie Hanauer ($25K), the University of Washington Medical Center ($10K), SEOmoz ($10K) and Pemco ($5K), $108,000 has already been raised, topping the $100K goal.
The Seattle Police Department assures that the buyback program is anonymous. They will not be taking any pictures of the people who turn in their guns, nor will they be looking for any signatures. Once the guns have been collected they will become the property of Seattle PD and will be melted down and destroyed. In a written statement the SPD said,
This isn’t a trick, and this isn’t a sting. Whether you’re turning an anti-tank missile launcher you “found” in your basement, or your Gammie’s old .45, the buyback is anonymous with no questions asked.
Seattle joins a growing trend across the country with this gun buyback program. Los Angeles had a similar buyback incentive last month and recovered over 2,000 firearms.
Critics however, argue that programs such as these don’t work. GunMag senior editor Dave Workman said, “We’ve had a history of these gun buybacks around the country, and they haven’t done anything.” And while there may be no correlation between the gun buyback programs and less crime that we have seen, as of yet, the thousands of guns these programs take out of circulation have to make some kind of difference in the long run.
Do you think gun buyback programs are worthwhile?
Story found by @daveschappell
Photo: befrugal.com
Might be a handy way to dispose of a gun you need to get rid of. Tossing it into a lake seems so tacky….
I have an Amazon card. Can I trade it in for a gun? Fair is fair.
Very often after one of these “gun buy-back” programs there will be news reports of some rare antique gun turned in for the small price offered. Since the people turning in guns in these programs tend to be people on low or fixed incomes, I think it is a disservice to them to imply, as most of the advertising for these programs does, that such gun buy-backs are the “only” lawful way for some of these folks to divest 5themselves of their unwanted guns. People who possess valuable guns which they do not want should be made aware of all… Read more »
If the worst thing happening in these buybacks is that some people are getting ripped off on the value of their antiques, that doesn’t really sound too awful, IMHO.