Yesterday there was another gun "buy-back" conducted in the city of Detroit under the auspices of the local police department. Predictably, today's news brings word via the local newspapers that badged chest-beating is occuring in the aftermath, just not as vociferously as was the case in September of this same year.
In September, at the last Detroit Police Department (DPD) sponsored "buy-back," it was reported that 800 firearms were sold to the police. At that time, folks were lined-up from the hosting church's front door - down the paved sidewalk - all the way to the chain-linked fence that defines the parking lot's border. In sharp contrast, only 300 firearms were available to be bought by the police yesterday - 38% of the amount bought by police in September.
In yesterday's Fox 2 News story on TV, DPD Chief Ralph Godbee was quoted as stating the following, "Those guns will not be used to perpetrate armed robberies, and those guns will not be picked up by a young person by accident and we have another tragedy with a child killing themselves accidentally."
It appears that DPD is trying to spin yesterday's firearms-buying-operation into a home safety issue, despite previously trying to fill the public's conscious minds with rhetoric that suggested that DPD was "taking guns off the street."
In truth, the guns that DPD bought on a no-questions-asked basis were to a great extent old pieces of junk that posed a threat no one "on the street." The dirty little secret that DPD doesn't want the general public to know is that criminals do not sell their working firearms to the police for $50.
As to the question of firearms posing a threat to children, the police are once again preying upon the ignorance of the general public. Nobody will disagree that firearms should be kept away from small children. Responsible firearms owners will ensure that.
The facts, which seem to escape the police when bleating about their gun buying activities, is that accidental firearms deaths have steadily decreased every year over the last 20 years and currently are dwarfed by all other forms of accidental deaths - even when combined. DPD has no shame. They are lying to you by omission.
However, the most misleading aspect of DPD's gun buying scam is that they do not work. Even DPD knows this; you just don't know it and DPD hopes that you don't find out. I had an opportunity to meet and observe the DPD Chief at a Board of Police Commissioners Meeting in the Southwest District two weeks ago.
On that night, he proved to me that he has a fine handle on Detroit crime statistics, by type of crime, and can tell you on a percentage basis where the numbers are now and how they rate with the numbers corresponding to the prior year. Thus, it should come as a surprise to you when the police tell you that their gun buying operation is working but they can't prove it, especially with statistics.
At yesterday's Board of Police Commissioners at DPD Headquarters, a Deputy Chief was asked if he could share by how much violent crime had dropped in Detroit since the last DPD gun-buying-operation in September. He stated that the results are, "difficult to quantify." That's police-talk. Translated, it means that gun buy-backs have no effect on crime.
If the general public knew that gun buybacks didn't work, they would demand that the police do something about the outrageous and heinous crimes that we witness in the local papers everyday. For now, Detroiters can watch a televised newscast showing a couple tables of junk guns and listen to DPD Chief brag about the great work he's doing about getting guns off the street.
DPD is running a scam. You deserve better.
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I do most of my blogging and article writing in coffee shops because there are too many distractions at home.
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