Bullets and misplaced trust
The Saturday Mercury, Tasmania
16 October 1999
In Tampa, Florida, gun owners turned in more than 1300 semi-automatic rifles, "Saturday night specials" and other weapons in exchange for $US40 Wal-Mart gift certificates, no questions asked.
In Lexington, Kentucky, hundreds of residents ate out at McDonald's to the tune of $US100 worth of Big Macs, fries and soda per gun.
Perhaps the most unusual exchange was offered by a chain of strip bars in St Louis: in conjunction with Local police, PT's strip club promised patrons a free table dance for turning in a firearm. It was called Buns for Guns - and it wasn't very effective. The chain's national director Michael Ocello said no guns were turned in.
In a country besieged by firearms violence, gun buy-backs are more popular than ever.
Following the lead of local authorities around the US, President Bill Clinton's administration plans to launch the nation's biggest buy-back in December, a $A23 million program officials say could coax up to 300,000 people to turn in their firearms in exchange for some quick Christmas money.
While the buy-backs have succeeded in getting tens of thousands of guns off the streets, experts of firearm violence agree they have had little effect on violent crime. That's because virtually everywhere they have been tried, it's not potential criminals who are turning in the guns.
Studies have found the overwhelming majority of people getting rid of weapons are law-abiding adults who worry that having them around will lead to an accident.
The debate over gun buy-backs and other efforts to reduce gun violence is likely to intensify after the recent attack on a Texas church youth group by a lone gunman who killed eight people before taking his own life.
"Gun buy-backs are well-intentioned but they take a lot of time and money and effort that probably could be better spent," said Josh Sugarman, executive director of the Violence Policy Centre, which advocates stricter gun control laws as a way to cut gun crimes. "Way too many hopes are pinned on programs like this."
A study of a Sacramento, California, buy-back program published last year by researchers at the University of California and at Baltimore's Johns Hopkins University found 43% of those who turned in weapons kept other guns at home. Often the guns were stored loaded, an extremely dangerous practice.
As well, the guns turned in tended to be long guns and other weapons not typically used by street criminals, who prefer semi-automatic pistols. Buy-backs participants most frequently cited concern for their children's safety as a reason for surrendering the weapons.
In the past few years, studies of programs in Seattle and St Louis found no evidence that buy-backs reduced violent crime. The Seattle study found only 5% of participants were under 25, suggesting that teenagers and young adults - the age group most likely to be involved in street violence - had largely stayed away.
Nonetheless, the Clinton administration and many local officials are signing up to the idea. At a September 9 White House ceremony called to announce the program and to push for tougher gun laws, Clinton was joined by dozens of mayors and police chiefs.
His plan calls for granting cities up to $A768,000 for buy-backs in and around housing projects, at the "suggested price" of $US50 ($A77) a gun. The guns are to be destroyed.
"We are under no expectation that the majority of people in America are going to want to turn in their guns," said David Egner, a spokesman for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which will oversee the program.
"We are not making any claims this will end gun violence in this country. It is just one element of the President's overall anti-gun violence strategy and we feel it is going to save some lives."
University of Missouri criminologist Richard Rosenfeld studied two St Louis buy-back programs, including one that took in more than 7000 weapons in 1994. He found no evidence that crime rates fell.
Still, he said, it was probably worthwhile because it generated tremendous publicity and bucked up local residents. "Watching people try to do something about it is better than nothing," he said.
Home > Research archive > 1999 > Bullets and misplaced trust