Item — HN Reader

The way that these programs work, it is no questions asked (intended to get even criminals to turn in firearms, to prevent them from using in future crimes/suicides). So a "show ID to turn in" policy is a non-starter.

Shameless promotion, but even absent such gaming I am quite skeptical these are cost-effective, https://andrewpwheeler.com/2022/08/21/gun-buy-back-programs-....

Making it so they only take working handguns, and if the gift cards were more on the order of $25-$50 makes it a more palatable to me from a cost-benefit perspective. But still evidence they actually work is pretty slim.

1 comments

I won't argue with you on the effectiveness of a gun buyback because when Australia did it in 03 the follow up report determined that whilst yes, 70k firearms were removed from the population this didn't seem to curb gun crimes to a lower level prior to the buyback.

https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/australi...

Australia's gun buy back could be considered a real political compromise, if you're willing to consider no one is happy with the results. IE total gun owners lowered from 6 percent something to half that. Number of guns per owner went considerably up, and total guns imported each year is higher than it's ever been.

Basically when you see an extreme (American) view on gun control trying to use Australia as an argument for their policy, you should just laugh at them. The numbers are so "inconclusive"/"manipulatable" that such a view can use the numbers to say whatever they want to their own uncritical base.