New Jersey Gun Turn-in "buyback" event 22 September, 2018

A firearm turn-in event is scheduled in New Jersey for 22 September, 2018. These events have been fading away in most of the United States. In most of the country, private gun buyers attend these events and purchase expensive firearms at a higher price than the event offers.

This destroys the propaganda value of the event. It shows that guns are valuable artifacts that many law abiding citizens find desirable and useful.

But in states that have either outlawed private sales, or made them very cumbersome, such as New Jersey and California, gun turn-in events still have some propaganda value. From courierpostonline.com:

Participants are permitted to turn in up to three guns each, no questions asked, and do not have to be residents of Burlington or Mercer counties. Ammunition is not accepted and firearms dealers are not allowed to participate in the buyback.

The county agencies are offering cash payments $250 for assault rifles, $150 for handguns, $100 for a rifle or shotgun, and $20 for an inoperable firearm.

The Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office and the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office will host a regional gun buyback event on September 22, 2018 from 8am-4pm.

The organizers of the event in Burlington county have put some further restrictions on the event to preserve its propaganda value.

Notice only residents may turn in firearms, even though they will not ask for ID. In fact, they claim no questions will be asked.

They say that firearm dealers will not be allowed to participate. If they are not asking questions, how will they know who is a dealer and who is not?

They limit the number of firearms turned in to three per person.

At such an event I would be leery of claims of anonymity. New Jersey firearms laws are multitudinous and penalties are severe.

If the authorities decided to renege on the promises of “no ID” and “no questions” who is going to hold them to account?  Could a person file a lawsuit for false arrest? Remember, law enforcement officers are allowed to run sting operations, and to lie to suspects in order to obtain convictions.

It will be interesting to see what is turned in at this event. It would be informative if an activist could video most of it, or at least the interesting parts.

Six circuits have ruled it is a First Amendment right to video public officials in the performance of their public duties. New Jersey is in the third circuit, which has upheld the First Amendment right to record video.  Only the Eight Circuit 
has ruled the public does not have a right to video public officials on public property.

It might be sad to see a classic Webley pistol (commonly bringing $500- $1,000 on the collectors market, be turned in to be destroyed for a mere $150.

There have been many collectible, historical, and lovely items turned in for destruction.

Most of the firearms turned in at these events are from people who inherited the firearms, know nothing about them, and are not interested in finding out how much they are actually worth.

It is common to see widows effectively tricked out of hundreds of dollars of value.

©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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