A Minneapolis gun buyback program targeting weapons used in street crimes may be shooting blanks, as detractors said a Saturday collection mostly took in antiquated, unused or homemade arms from legal owners and did little to thin the firearm supply actually available to dangerous criminals.
(FOX)- Two Minneapolis locations collected about 150 firearms Saturday, but both exchanges were forced to shut down several hours early when officials ran out of Visa gift cards – $25,000 worth, The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.
And at least some of that money helped finance the purchase of even more guns.
One anonymous gun owner told WCCO he received $200 in gift cards that he planned to use to buy a new firearm. That man said he didn’t think the program was serving its intended purpose.
“I just don’t feel that a criminal is going to come up to a fire department with a bunch of police around it and turn in a gun,” he said.
Paul Joat, an area gun collector, told The Star Tribune he bought two weapons on the street, ostensibly offering the sellers a better deal than the city could.
“A lot of what I’m seeing is gun nuts turning in their guns for more than they’re worth,” he said.
A commenter on the Minnesota Gun Talk message board noted that “every single person in line was one of us.”
The lure of a Visa gift card worth between $15 and $300 was enough to make some enterprising Minnesotans get creative.