(Source: Joshua Hearn (CC))
Gun buyback programs are supposed to clear guns off the streets, but a bill has passed the Arizona House and Senate that would require local governments to resell the guns they bought off the street. Pro-sell legislators call it a waste of money to destroy the guns.
House Bill 2455 would require that local governments that buyback guns to sell the firearm “to any business that is authorized to receive and dispose of the firearm under federal and state law and that shall sell the firearm to the public.”
State Senator Rick Murphy, who supported the bill, said:
“It’s about protecting taxpayers,” he said. “It deals with valuable property that is being destroyed … for no good reason, to accomplish nothing other than make people feel good.”
In that case, why even have a buyback program? If Murphy is concerned about wasting taxpayer dollars, then the buyback and resell programs should both be dropped. They only contribute to bureaucracy.
Of course, if the state thinks it is going to make money off by buying cheap and selling for a profit, then those costs are going to be recouped. Yet that leads to another dilemma. Is it really the business of government to be profiting in firearm sales to its own residents?
It makes no sense to take guns off the street only to resell them later, and, presumably, have then bought off the street again only to be placed back onto the streets. Round and around it goes, but for what purpose no one knows.
Source:
http://foolocracy.com/2013/04/arizona-bill-would-resell-buyback-guns/