A few weeks ago Chicago held a gun buyback that was touted all over the news as some kind of huge success.
In all, some 5500 guns were turned in. They are calling it a success.
The gun was one of more than 5,500 weapons — including several large, military-grade machine guns — replicas and BB guns turned in at the city’s annual gun buy-back program. Those handing over working weapons were given a $100 MasterCard gift card, while those who brought in replica or BB guns received $10 gift cards.
There were so many firearms turned in that police ran out of gift cards and said some people would have to come back next week to collect.
And why shouldn’t they? 5500 guns is a shitload of guns. Even if some of them didn’t work or were older than the Bush dynasty…
“Guns Save Life,” based in Champaign, Ill., recently sold 60 firearms to the Chicago Police Department — 10 of which were manufactured before 1898 — in exchange for $6,240 in gift cards, according to group president John Boch. The sale also included five BB guns and a rickety pump-action shotgun that was held together by duct tape and zip ties, he said.
The butthurt was strong with this move.
But let’s start cracking this number with some simple math.
Accepted estimates of the number of guns in this country range between 250 to 280 million. Those are the ones we know about.
How many murders are committed with guns in the US? According to the FBI, about 9000 a year.
So, using 250 million guns as our base figure, for every 28000 guns in the US, 1 murder is committed. So to statistically prevent one murder, a gun buyback would have to net 28 THOUSAND guns.
Wake me up when that happens.
