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* Sun-Times…
Hours after Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced a $250,000 gun buyback program on Monday, a downstate gun-rights advocate promised to come to Chicago to exploit it.
“We will be delighted to transact business once more with do-gooders in Chicago,” John Boch, executive director of Champaign-based Guns Save Life, said Monday.
Guns Save Life used Chicago’s 2012 gun buyback to embarrass city officials. That year, members said they turned in about 60 guns — some of them rusty and inoperable.
They received $100 MasterCard gift cards for each gun, which they used to buy ammunition for a National Rifle Association youth camp in Bloomington and bolt-action rifles to give away to campers.
posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 11:57 am
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Good idea on paper.
Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 12:06 pm
Just over 1% of the money spent on Chicago’s 2012 gun buyback went to the Guns Save Life stunt.
That’s not even a rounding error.
– MrJM
(60 guns/5,500 guns= 1.09%)
Comment by @MisterJayEm Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 12:14 pm
Maybe Boch will “find” all the guns he used to brag about “losing” on his website.
I hope none of those guns he “lost” ended up in the hands of gangbangers or felons. That seems to be the case often with “lost” or “stolen” guns in Illinois.
Comment by Wordslinger Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 12:14 pm
I just don’t get the 2nd amendment advocates who do stuff like that. Why? At least the moral mondays, or whatever folks are trying to do something moral. I don’t find any morality in the gun advocates actions.
Comment by Honeybear Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 12:15 pm
Guns will get into criminals hands regardless of laws and buybacks. Complete waste of time.
Comment by Tone Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 12:16 pm
HB, birds gotta fly, grifters gotta grift.
Comment by Wordslinger Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 12:18 pm
Ooooo… they got one over good on Chicago. I’m so impressed. /s
Comment by PolPal56 Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 12:20 pm
Right after they cash their old guns in and collect money that was meant to get guns out of dangerous neighborhoods, these guys get back into their camouflaged trucks and laugh at how smart they are. Then they ring doorbells on houses that night, then run when folks come to the door.
Comment by VanillaMan Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 12:23 pm
I hope they drive through Englewood on their way to Chicago to see first hand how that 2nd Amendment thingy is working out.
Comment by Colin O'Scopey Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 12:25 pm
Wordslinger is right.
Hey, $100 to make sure one of Bloch’s crew will not “lose” a weapon is money well spent.
And I’m glad he’s spending it on ammo. If his friends are so obsessed with guns, hopefully they will take the time to train to use them properly.
Comment by Gooner Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 12:28 pm
Why do the ammosexuals gotta be jerks about this?
Comment by Deep South Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 12:31 pm
Maybe they’e protesting the Mayor using $250,000 in tax money for a useless PR stunt.
Comment by Maguffin Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 12:32 pm
I love those guys.
Comment by DonaldTrump Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 12:35 pm
Perhaps the gun fondlers could support a program whereby the mayor used $250,000 to buy new guns and hand ‘em out first come, first served ….you know the more guns the better. Right? Or would that be a useless PR stunt, too?
Comment by Deep South Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 12:42 pm
Why not combine a March for Peace to the BuyBack depot, then a candlelight vigil for the Snail Darters
Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 12:46 pm
One of the main arguments is
“if you outlaw guns - only the outlaws will have guns”
I do believe this to be true.
Comment by Allen D Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 12:49 pm
“if you outlaw guns - only the outlaws will have guns”
That would be both clever and germane if there were a proposal to outlaw guns.
– MrJM
Comment by @MisterJayEm Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 12:59 pm
Hopefully Boch (and others) will apply the $100 gift card toward the purchase of a gun safe.
Until we have a National Gun Registry and/or require riders on homeowners insurance policies for gun owners, “gun buy-backs” are the best we can hope for.
Comment by Jocko Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 1:00 pm
===they used to buy ammunition for a National Rifle Association youth camp in Bloomington===
I wonder how many residents from Chicago benefited from the youth camp in Bloomington?
Comment by Hit or Miss Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 1:13 pm
Actually, both the intent of the minuscule buy-back program and the attempt to subvert it by trading gift cards for ammunition are on the scale of removing a 6-pack from the shelves of a 50,000 square foot liquor store in the hopes of reducing alcoholism.
Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 1:18 pm
Put that money towards taking guns away from criminals…
Comment by Shanks Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 1:18 pm
Shanks, CPD have seized about 5,500 guns so far this year in criminal investigations, about 7,000 in 2014, according to Sun-Times a couple of days ago.
That’s the most of any city in the country.
Yet so many guns get “lost” of “stolen” around here, and the “lawful” owners are unaware until they turn up in a gangbangers hands.
Comment by Wordslinger Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 1:32 pm
One is forced to wonder how that actually advances the cause of gun rights and self-defense.
Comment by Arsenal Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 1:33 pm
Last time a gun dealer took in a couple dozen imported rifles. He was selling them at the store for $79.99 and CPD gave him a $100 each for them.
The gun buybacks reallydont accomplish anything outside of giving some people a warm and fuzzy feelng that they are “doing” something.
Kinda funny that they now provide a venue for crimnals to dispose of their evidense with a no questions asked policy.
Also funny how they rail for background checks on every transaction of a firearm, yet they wont even ask for a name or ID of the people that are tunring stuff in.
Comment by Todd Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 1:51 pm
The 2nd Amendment does not mean unfettered access to guns. Just like the 1st Amendment does not mean unfettered access to speech….for instance yelling “FIRE” in a crowded movie theatre and claiming it’s Free Speech.
If you “Bear Arms” in this country you are a member of a Well Regulated Militia. Your “Right” is regulated by the Government.
Comment by Jack Stephens Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 1:58 pm
Talk about grass bowls.
What does Mr. Block have against the good people of Chicago? His little stunt last time meant that 60 guns that would have been removed from the streets of Chicago were not. God only knows (and trust me He knows) how many people died as a result.
Is it Block’s contention that all of the guns in Chicago are in the hand of responsible gun owners? Just as likely they are in the hands of people like himself, who can’t seem to keep track of his guns let alone store them safely.
These people are not pro-gun-rights, they are just pro-gun. He is the very definition of “gun nut.”
Comment by BeenThereB4 Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 1:59 pm
==Also funny how they rail for background checks on every transaction of a firearm, yet they wont even ask for a name or ID of the people that are tunring stuff in.==
You couldn’t have missed that point anymore if Jake Arietta threw it.
Comment by Arsenal Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 2:01 pm
Boch not Block.
Comment by BeenThereB4 Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 2:47 pm
If the City of Chicago is so flush that it has $250,000 to waste, as much of it as possible might as well go to a good cause - like Mr. Boch plans.
Comment by logic not emotion Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 2:48 pm
So, how loudly is Emanuel crowing over Bosch helping him to elevate the noise level of an announcement scrabbled together as a giant diversion in the first place?
There was another little bit of news in the cycle:
https://goo.gl/SuaAhm
Comment by crazybleedingheart Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 3:05 pm
Have several stop.
Would be deleted stop.
Or banned stop.
Stop.
Comment by sal-says Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 4:41 pm
== I hope they drive through Englewood on their way to Chicago to see first hand how that 2nd Amendment thingy is working out. ==
Yeah. Maybe slowly about midnite to 2am while waving out their pickup truck windows.
Comment by sal-says Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 4:46 pm
Just thinking. Illinois is the only state in the Union to require a FOID card. We’re broke as a state and how is the card thing working?
Comment by Blue dog dem Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 5:28 pm
My name is Boch
I lost my Glock
Now I have nothing
To replace my small —-
Guns save Lives!
Comment by Arthur Andersen Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 5:44 pm
Have the laws in Chicago stopped homicides by gun? Do you want to make laws against cars if someone gets killed by one? It happens a lot. What about knives? They are dangerous, too. It’s about the person responsible, not the inanimate object. Just my thoguht.
Comment by Gramps Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 6:52 pm
Here comes Gramps with the car / gun / knife argument…for some reason the anti-gun control folks immediately take cover (no pun intended) behind the “let’s ban cars” argument. Let’s look at this a couple ways - the number of car accident deaths and injuries per million miles driven pales in comparison to the amount of people killed or injured when a gun is pointed at them and fired. Don’t ask me for statistics and references, this is just common sense and only somebody in deep denial would argue with this. How many miles have you driven without being seriously injured? What would your chances of being killed or injured be if someone shot you?
Next, what is the purpose of a car? To get somewhere easily. Just like a gun is used to injure or kill someone easily. People like to say that if guns were banned, then somebody can use a knife or a bat or whatever. Sure, it can happen. Just like if cars were banned, I guess I could walk or ride a bike from Chicago to Naperville. Point is, it can be done but not as easily. Columbine, VA Tech, Aurora, Sandy Hook, Oregon, all done with guns.
And let’s stop comparing Chicago gun crimes to mass shootings. Both are a scourge to society, but it’s not gang bangers mowing down teachers and students 10-20 at a time. Neither can be forgiven, but they stem from different causes. And sadly, the inner city violence is predictable and avoidable (aside from those living there), whereas mass shootings are not. One is, stay out of the bad inner city neighborhoods and you should be safe. The other is, you’re at a movie theater and then some maniac with 6 guns and a flak jacket opens fire like a scene from The Matrix.
Then it’ll be “let’s arm the teachers.” Sure, let’s give guns to a bunch of young to middle-aged (mostly) women who have never handled a gun before. That would just make them the first target of a shooter. And even if they were pro marksmen, the element of surprise that a shooter would have would easily cause mass casualties before a “good guy / girl with a gun” could even get a shot off. People have seen one too many action movies. Get real.
Look, some things our predecessors did just don’t make sense now because they couldn’t understand how their decisions would lead to something worse in the future. Sometimes they’ll put something in a State constitution in 1970 that says pensions can’t be touched. A couple centuries ago some guys wrote down that people should have guns - though they did say “well-regulated” which we apparently haven’t figured out. I just can’t remember the last time a pension killed a bunch of 1st graders.
I will end this by saying I own guns. And, I don’t think my rights would be “infringed” if I had to register my firearms, was able to possess only a certain number of them, could load only 10 rounds instead of 100, and had a cap on the amount of ammo I could purchase. Yes, gun crimes may still occur, but we need to start somewhere to get things under control. Hey, we all like cars but think we can agree it’s a good thing that people can’t drive an F-1 race car down I-55 at 200 mph.
Comment by Hugo Stiglitz Tuesday, Oct 20, 15 @ 10:12 pm