A BEST BUY in Chicagoland: Selling (s)crap metal at a gun turn in

[American_Pit_Bull]

Well, lets see... The OP stated that the gun buyback was city funded, so the only funds diverted were the funds from the tax payers' pockets and into a worthless program.

The Big Picture is that he helped their cause. Their goal was met and touted due to actions like the OP. The superficial picture was the sophomoric instant gratification of sticking it to the man.

In the realm of politics, instant gratification is worthless. Devote you time and effort towards your own cause, seeking longterm results.

 

[Templar223]

Well, lets see... The OP stated that the gun buyback was city funded,

Nowhere in my OP did it say the program was city funded.

Reading is fundamental.

In fact, in none of the literature was a sponsor listed.

I said thanks to "Mayor Daley" for the city cop participation (not likely done on a volunteer basis). The cards were made possible by a corporate sponsor.

But you do have a point: you probably contributed to the cards somewhere along the line.

Since you're clearly of superior intellect, why don't you share with us how I 'helped' the cause of gun buybacks.

By the way, what have YOU done for the cause lately, hmm?

John


Yeah, I helped them hit their goal. I hope they do it again! I'll help them even more with more than a two-week notice! We're planning on making it a five-figure take at the next one of these. And hopefully, not being too bright, they'll continue to buy our junk at outrageous prices!

 

[Larry Ashcraft]

Corriea said what was on my mind.

They make up their stats anyway, so it makes no difference if we help them. And those worried about the guns being melted down; They were junk, and they make new ones everyday. Who know, maybe some of the steel from the scrap pile will end up at S&W or Ruger.

Good on you.

 

[Vodka7]

the only funds diverted were the funds from the tax payers' pockets and into a worthless program.

Even if I agreed that selling crappy guns at a profit to an anti-RKBA organization was a bad thing (and I most definitely do not agree), this wasn't a program that lasted forever. This was a program that was funded with $X dollars, and when they ran out of gift cards, the program ended. So where would you have that already earmarked money go? To the average Joe who's selling a working gun that he doesn't have a need for? Or to someone who's going to take advantage of a stupid program and divert that money to pro-2A uses?

Templar, what you did was brilliant. I hope you well-written story gets the publicity it deserves.

 

[Ian]

Templar, you are The Man.

 

[realityscope]

The Press release after the GBB would have been the same if they collected 50 guns or 50,000...i see it as he played them like the fools they are and funded a youth program teaching kids about guns which is a very positive thing as they are the future, not the anti's

 

[Blue .45]

I live in the Chicago area. While visiting a couple of my local gun shops, I heard a number of people talking about selling their junk guns at the "buy back", in order to fund a new gun. It wouldn't surprise me if some actually did buy junk from a pawn shop and sell it to the city for a profit.

 

[waterhouse]

In the realm of politics, instant gratification is worthless. Devote you time and effort towards your own cause, seeking longterm results.

He did seek longterm results. He is using the funds to teach young people how to shoot and safely handle firearms. It doesn't get any more long term than teaching young people.

 

[Mr Weebles]

So you'd rather pocket a measly $100 than keep guns out of the hands of idiot gun-grabbers who want to strip your rights away? You're really comfortable with saying that?

If so, I don't really know what else to say to you, other than thanks for the stab in the back. But hey, at least you got more than 30 pieces of silver, huh?

Seriously - You'd knowingly give WORKING guns to anti-gunners, during an anti-gun publicity program? And for profit? AND tell us that you'd rather do that, as long as THEY PAY YOU, than donate them to a school or organization that would use them to teach others about guns in a responsible manner?

I kind of understand your point, but the money these gun-grabbers shelled out will go to a program that will educate the next generation of responsible, lawful firearms owners.

Each of those kids will hopefully grow up and continue the fight for the 2nd Amendment.

Sure, the gun-grabbers will get a little publicity for removing "dangerous guns" from the street but in the long run they've accomplished nothing. At the same time they've contributed (albeit unwittingly) to the very folks who they disdain.

It's a win-win.

 

[Justin]

I have to agree that what Templar did is a good thing. Taking the money and using it to fund a youth program is so deviously subversive.

I find it sad that some of you can't appreciate the sheer brilliance of what he did.

 

[offthepaper]

In the realm of politics, instant gratification is worthless. Devote you time and effort towards your own cause, seeking longterm results

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Think about it for a minute.
At the end of the day, Templar succeded in helping fund youth shooting sports. That's the seeds of the future, the ones who will one day continue the fight for RKBA, if properly introduced to the sport/cause.
If these programs were'nt aggressivly nurtured and funded, to instill the value of these precious rights given to us at birth, what do you think would happen to 2A rights in the next 50 years?
I'm not trying to flame anyone's position here, but the reality is that Templars actions did much more to help 2A than it hurt it.

Templar,
You did a rightous thing.
My respects.

 

[Tom Servo]

Templar, you are now my personal hero. Not only for swindling a stupid program, but for turning the result into something useful.

Thing is, there are a coupla guns in that picture I could have cleaned up and taken off your hands

 

[the pistolero]

Templar, that was just jaw-droppingly brilliant, not to mention a pretty good read, too. You're my hero.

 

[Blackbeard]

I think if an Anti read Templar223's post, he'd tell his anti buddies that Dayley sold out the anti movement by funding the 2A crowd. Yes, I don't like helping the anti's in any way, but I think Templar's actions fall on the pro-2A side of the fence. $2300 less for the anti's to use against us.

I just wish you'd mentioned on your way out the door that you're going to go buy an assault weapon with your proceeds.

 

[Blackbeard]

Plus, since as Templar noted they had a limited supply of the $100 cards, they may have run out before all guns were turned in, thus his actions kept more working guns out of the city's hands!

 

[JeffKnox]

Great Work John

I can't believe anyone is bashing you for this.
It seems that they place the same kind of mystical significance on guns that the anti's do. Guns are just carved metal. The anti's are going to get the same publicity and make the same claims of success regardless. And while they're ineffectively taking pieces of scrap metal off of the streets, you are effectively taking money out of their hands. This is an absolutely positive thing and those of you who have a problem with it are over complicating the whole thing. You guys need to go to the NRA list of anti-gun businesses and celebrities and make sure that you absolutely never ever do business with them or go to their movies or watch them on TV... There are plenty of things we all do every day that could somehow be construed to be helping the opposition. You guys are trying to be the Vegans of the gun rights movement and it's just not realistic. Selling a worthless piece of junk for $100 of the anti's money - even if it is from the stupid taxpayers who elect these Bozo's - is a good deal, period.
When I was in college I lived at one gun shop and worked at another. We'd get all manner of junk in the door and the guys from the Yavapai College gunsmithing program and I would pick through it and give the boss 5 or 10 bucks for a box of the stuff now and then. For $10 and some elbow grease I could sometimes produce a couple of decent little .22 bolt guns that I'd sell on consignment for $30 or $40 bucks, but the pistols generally weren't worth even trying to work on; they were just to dangerous. And even with a school full of gunsmithing students regularly prowling through the junk boxes, there were always boxes and piles of stuff that simply wasn't worth fooling with - just scrap. Dealer's have to account for any piece of junk that was ever a gun that comes into their store. They can't sell them for scrap or throw them away and Numerich and the gunsmithing schools don't want that stuff, gun buyback programs are wonderful - until they figure out that they're funding our habit.
My one complaint with GBB's is that they don't make any effort to run any serial numbers or save the few good - and sometimes potentially historic - guns that they get. I'd like to see a law that requires an NCIC check on all of those guns and if they turn up as stolen, they be returned to their rightful owners. I have visions of the 3" Thunderer that was stolen from me years ago finding its way into one of those buy back boxes and going to the smelter.
Good work John! Take em for all you can get.
Jeff

 

[Gator]

Yes, great job!

Guns are tools; tools wear out. I see nothing wrong in getting rid of old worthless guns and replacing them with new ones, and doing so at the expense of the gun grabbers is sweet, sweet irony.

 

[kungfuhippie]

I don't think the buy back programs are good. But I do think taking their money away is good.
I must give this more thought.

 

[Preacherman]

Templar, great, GREAT job! I'm with you all the way on this one. I'd try to do the same where I live . . . but round here the cops would:

1. Laugh in the face of anyone wanting to take guns away from people;

2. Offer to provide a gun to a citizen who needed one in a hurry;

3. Make a note in their Little Black Books of any individual or location trying to sponsor such an effort (for future reference, you know).

 

[.cheese.]

And he came right out and stated that those same working guns were "scrap metal", which when you think about it is a pretty damn ANTI way of looking at a working firearm.

Guns are nothing more than the sum of their parts. They're metal and/or plastic and/or wood. My screwdriver set is metal and plastic.... while it works as a screw-driver it's a tool.... but ultimately it's metal and plastic.

Guns are tools too.

Don't get me wrong. I like having my guns as tools..... but I'm not going to lose sight of the fact that they're just tools... and ultimately metal and/or plastic.

 

[American_Pit_Bull]

OK... So they make up the numbers any ways and the money is going to a good cause...

Tell me this. Will you help pad their fictional numbers if Hilary introduces a petition for a national AWB and offers you $20 per signature in favor of the ban?

Sure, no one else will pay you $20 for your signature and they will probably end up padding the results any ways, so why not sign up your entire gun club and go down and support the antis... Afterall, you will put their money back into the club's activities, so it will balance out in the end...

Wait until next year when Chicago's murder rate drops by 2% due to natural fluctuation in crime stats, but the 15,000 guns off of the street due to the buyback will be the only thing to make the headlines. Less guns = Less crime will be further pushed on the public and the more stats that they can throw at middle-of-the-road non-gun owners, the more they can garner their support.

Even if my scenario is reaching and even if helping them pad their numbers and supporting "less guns = less crime" initiatives doesn't matter to you; I would not participate. Our angle, as gun owners, would never be seen in the publics eyes'..

If there was a national gun buyback day and thousands of gun owners could actually be heard and shown turning in junk handguns for cash toward new handguns and shooting programs, that would have an effect. It would show the idiocy of their campaign. Otherwise it is a mouse fart in a crowded hallway and I wouldn't participate purely on principle.

 

[repsychler]

Let me see here...I can either praise Templar for taking the anti's money and funding a youth shooting program...
...Or I can make up some make up some wild fantasy situation that didn't happen and berate him for actually doing something for the cause.

Huh.

 

[WiscTJK]

Sheer brilliance John.

What a great idea. Great use of the proceeds as well!

 

[Dave Markowitz]

IMHO, Templar223's actions benefitted our cause far more than it helped the gun grabbers'.

Yeah, he helped them pad their numbers. BFD. Most of their numbers are made up anyway.

However, he:

(a) helped use up the supply of Master Cards, possibly dissuading someone from turning in a functional gun,

(b) raised enough cash to purchase two high quality .22 rifles to be used for training new shooters. Helping to create new shooters has far more value than any 20 guns put together.

(c) if we publicize this (I will be blogging it), we make the gun grabbers look stupid.

Well done, sir!

 

[offthepaper]

Let me see here...I can either praise Templar for taking the anti's money and funding a youth shooting program...
...Or I can make up some make up some wild fantasy situation that didn't happen and berate him for actually doing something for the cause

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'bout the size of it.