Gun Buy Backs Don't Work

Chester officials are going to try a gun buy back program to help reduce violence in the city.

But these things haven't proven big successes wherever else they've been tried. According to a 2008, USA Today story:

Gun buyback programs from Miami to the San Francisco Bay are coming under fire by critics who question whether the bucks are reducing the big bangs.

"It's like trying to drain the Pacific with a bucket," says Alex Tabarrok, research director at the Independent Institute, a think tank in Oakland. "More guns are going to flow in."

Tabarrok and others complain the programs are feel-good events that do not reduce gun crimes and are abused by gun dealers seeking to unload junk merchandise at a good price. None of the guns are turned in by criminals, Tabarrok says, and many don't even fire.

"It presents an opportunity for politicians to grandstand," he says. "This is not about being pro-gun or anti-gun. It's about which policies actually work."

I hope Chester has some better ideas than this up it's sleeve.