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Politics & Government

Do Gun Buybacks Reduce Gun Violence?

Buybacks take thousands of guns off New Jersey streets, but critics argue the millions spent could be put to better use.


State officials, with the help of local authorities, have been conducting a gun buyback campaign in several New Jersey cities, an effort to reduce gun-related crimes that they say was planned before the Newtown, CT, shooting.

Since December, the state has spent $1.2 million on five buybacks. They’ve collected a record haul of more than 9,000 firearms, including rocket launchers, assault weapons, and submachine guns.

No one seems to dispute that it's good idea to get those items off the street. But some question whether the effort is truly effective or worth the cost.

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Critics like Jon Vernick, a researcher at Johns Hopkins University who has co-authored two studies on the question, say there is no evidence that buybacks reduce gun violence and that the money spent on the programs could be put to better use.

Supporters, who include law enforcement, clergy, and some academics, acknowledge the lack of research, but say buybacks provide an array of benefits as part of a larger strategy for getting illegal guns off the streets. These include raising public awareness of the gun problem, which can rally support for gun-control legislation.

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According to Tom Reilly, executive director of the Police Institute at the Rutgers School of Criminal Justice in Newark, “Buybacks are done with a community partnership, in most cases with the support of community leaders and church leaders. It sends an important message as to lack of tolerance for violence in the community.”

The New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety has sponsored five buyback programs since December in conjunction with county prosecutors and local clergy. The buybacks, which had been planned and announced before the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, were located in urban centers with high crime rates and netted 9,153 firearms. Additional buybacks are planned, but a spokesman from the attorney general’s office said information on future programs was not available. More than 1,100 of the guns collected were considered illegal by law enforcement, meaning their magazine capacities exceeded state law or they had been modified.

According to the attorney general’s office, the programs are paid for with money from state and county criminal forfeiture funds, which has been collected by law enforcement at the time of arrest on drug and other charges. A total of $1.2 million has been spent on the five programs, the state indicated.

The rules for buybacks vary, but they generally offer cash or debit gift cards in exchange for weapons, with no questions asked about the firearms or the person turning them in.

The Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs, the state chapter of the National Rifle Association, has criticized buybacks as an amnesty program for violent felons. Neither the ANJRPC nor the national office of the NRA responded for requests for comment.

Part of the Solution

While Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa has lauded the program, he said through a spokesman that “gun violence is a complex and multifaceted problem, and buybacks are not the sole answer.”

“We believe they’re making a real difference throughout our state, particularly in light of the hundreds of illegal guns we’ve been able to take out of circulation,” said spokesman Leland Moore in an email.

“It's more than 9,000 guns that will never be used to terrorize an innocent person, turn an argument into a tragedy, kill a curious child, or claim the life of a police officer,” he said. He cited the number of illegal guns collected as an important outcome of the program, along with the number of people who have chosen to participate

Camden hosted the first buyback in the current round in December and set what was then a state record with 1,137 guns turned in. Trenton followed with 2,604 guns in January, Essex County with 1,770 guns in February and then Monmouth County with 1,581 guns and Atlantic City with 2,061, both in March.

Vernick, codirector of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research in Maryland, says buybacks do little to reduce street crime and have little real impact on the number of guns in circulation. The Hopkins Center studies firearms and gun violence from a public health standpoint, and Vernick has written numerous reports on the subject, including one of the few that looks at the impact of buyback programs.

“Unfortunately, there is no evidence that gun buybacks reduce rates of street crime in the communities where the buybacks occur,” he said.

There is a misconception, he says, that the number of guns that may be collected translates into a reduction in functional firepower on the street. But the evidence that does exist tends to show the opposite, he said.

“The people who participate don’t tend on average to be the highest-risk people,” he said. “The highest-risk people are young males, and the people who participate are disproportionately older people and females.

“And the guns turned in are not the highest-risk guns,” he added. “The highest-risk guns are newer. They are semi-automatic pistols, have higher calibers. Disproportionately, the guns turned in are older, lower-caliber, or not functional.”

What gun buybacks may do, however, is divert money and attention from more effective approaches. That money would be better spent elsewhere, he said.

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