When a city announces, with much fanfare and media coverage that they are instituting a “Gun Buy Back Program” everyone smiles and thinks great we are going to get all these guns off the street and we will be safer because of it, that’s wonderful and are in total support of this effort, The Politicians beleieve the public will perceive them as caring and forthright , The Police Department believes that the citizens will see them as trying to solve a problem and trustworthy, The Corporations and concerns that donate great sums of money to the programs believe this to be the solution and they will be seen as benevolent to the community. First and foremost I say that these programs will take guns out of the hands of some citizens, but for the most part don’t even scratch the surface of the underlying problem. For the most part they are processes that are put together quickly (usually a knee jerk response to another problem) and are not well thought out and are the program instead of being a part of a more comprehensive effort to diminish gun violence in a city. More credence is given to number of guns collected than to where they actually come from. Mostly what you collect during these programs are weapons that legal owners don’t want anymore and the occasional mom that was cleaning juniors room and happened upon a gun and is turning that one in.
First of all the crux of any real effort should be concentrated on and in the neighborhoods were gun violence is the problem, often times those guns are held by people that play by a different set of rules, those people would no more give up their guns than a carpenter would be willing to part with his hammer. For that segment of society a more intense program would have to be in place. First of all you need a real top to bottom community policing program in effect, if the community doesn’t trust you or believe that they are partnered with you no inroads can be made, trust is one of the pillars of a good community policing program, that would probably lead to a situation making it possible for a fully focused gun buy back program to be a successful cornerstone.
Guns are instruments of destruction used to instill fear and to intimidate people in impoverished neighborhoods where most of this crime occurs, They are used and brandished to further negative ends in the community ,some would even say that they need them for protection in such environments, logic would dictate that , maybe the place to start may be spending that money to positively raise the economic condition of the people that reside there (A Comprehensive Jobs Program), maybe bring quality youth intervention programs (DARE, GREAT, PAL,) to the table, maybe recreational programs, maybe programs that appeal to the creative forces (Arts & Music)in people would help, maybe trying to find a way to increase civic pride would help, Educational Programs ALL utilizing The Police Department on a continuum and lastly maybe spending some of that money to increase the value of life itself to the people in those neighborhoods would cut into the gun violence rate……Just a thought.
David Daniels III Blog 