By: José Niño
According to a report by Dean Weingarten at AmmoLand, Colorado elected officials have a plan to hold a gun “buy back” in March 2022.
Weingarten notes, however, these politicians will likely not be able to hold this event because Colorado law “makes it nearly impossible to hold a ‘buy back’ legally.”
“Buyback” is a euphemistic term used for events where people hand over their firearms to police, to be destroyed later, in exchange for monetary rewards, gift cards, etc. Law enforcement, though, can’t “buy back” firearms they never possessed in the first place.
According to a study released by the National Bureau of Economics in May 2021, gun buybacks do not reduce crime or suicides. In fact, buybacks have a small effect on increasing crime for a brief period.
“Our goal is to get guns off the street. What we’re seeing is an extraordinary uptick in crime in both Denver and Aurora,” Denver Councilwoman Amanda Sawyer said to CBS4’s Mekialaya White in a Zoom interview.
“I think for a long time there’s been a hesitancy for government to get involved in a program like this, especially in the metro area. There’s a crisis in our communities, especially with young people,” declared Aurora Councilman-at-Large Curtis Gardner. “So, we are partnering with Colorado Springs-based nonprofit RawTools that will take guns volunteered at our buyback that will turn them into garden tools and jewelry. It creates a really neat synergy for the community.”
According to Colorado law, every firearms transfer must go through a federally licensed dealer, where the dealer charges a fee. So in effect, someone anonymously turning in a firearm in Colorado would be breaking state law. California’s universal gun registration law, too, effectively criminalizes gun buybacks.
This law was passed in 2013, which banned private sales. As a result of this registration law, transfers must pass through Federal Firearms Licensees, thereby subjecting them to government approval.
In fact, several “buyback” events were canceled in 2013 because of how they clashed with Colorado’s laws.
It would be naïve to think, however, that Colorado’s law will definitively prevent the Left from organizing “buyback” events. To be sure, this may have been the case in 2013, but nearly a decade later, the Left is much more emboldened and willing to break the very laws it has passed. After all, Colorado is a much bluer state now, and its gun control measures and anti-gun culture are far more entrenched.
The Left is serious about seeing through gun control, regardless of the legal obstacles it faces. That requires pro-Second Amendment forces to always be ready to throw wrenches in the Left’s anti-gun schemes.
José Niño is a freelance writer based in Austin, Texas. Contact him via Facebook, Twitter, or email him at [email protected]. Get his e-book, The 10 Myths of Gun Control, here.