Mayor Daley Purchases .22 Rifles For The Youth of Illinois

Last weekend Chicago held its third gun "turn in" event. Folks who gave up their firearms received a debit card worth $100 for each gun they "turned in". I commented on the event here.

The Pistolero has an after action report from an individual who took advantage of this "deal".

A Tale of Sheer Brilliance: Making Fools of Antis

The gist of the story, as posted on THR:

Members of the Champaign County Rifle Association gathered up a quantity of rusted out, scrap firearms to "turn in". One member drove in to Chicago and turned in the firearms at two of the 23 locations made available by Mayor Daley. The Champaign County Rifle Association (aka Guns Save Life) ended up with $1700. Most of this money will be used to purchase a couple CZ bolt-action .22s to be given away to two lucky kids participating in an upcoming NRA Youth Shooting Camp, and a heck of a lot of .22 ammo.

From The Pistolero:

Might not sound so good at first, but if you haven't seen it before, trust me, it's quite gratifying. A lot of folks say that participating in those "gun buy-backs" only helps the gun-haters because it ramps up the statistics on how many guns were turned in, but then there are also those who make the point that the buy-back advocates pad their numbers anyway. I'd agree with that. (By the way, how can one "buy back" property one never owned in the first place?!) Getting money for what are essentially piles of scrap metal and funneling that money back into the shooting sports -- money from people who think guns are essentially the root of all evil -- is just great. I was laughing out loud with glee and had a grin on my face the size of a B-52 when I was reading this at work yesterday. It'd be fun to see this happen more often. ;-)

I can see both sides of the coin.

The youth shooting sports can sure use the money. A couple of nice .22's and cases of ammo to feed them can go a long way towards teaching safe and accurate firearm handling skills. Our local 4-H shooting group sure could use money like that to upgrade their small bore and air rifle inventory. Receiving the money from the coffers of the anti's is icing on the cake.

In this instance, I am not so sure the ends justify the means. I have listened as the antis testify in from of the state legislature about the success of these kind of programs. I have seen, first hand, the representatives for the big cities drooling over the numbers and complementing the anti gun group on their contribution to the community. Numbers are powerful persuaders to politicians. Big numbers make for good publicity, and politicians would do pretty much anything for a good write up in the local news rag. For this to be a total win/win for the firearm community in Illinois, Guns Save Life needs to get this story into the Chicago news papers. Embarrassing the Mayor and his cronies would be the best way to keep them from using this program to forward their anti gun agenda.

The account of Templar223 and his foray into the city to "turn in" these guns is very well written and will make you laugh. You should click the THR link above and read the entire article, along with the 5 pages or so of comments.

Guns Save Life is a great organization very active in the attempt to regain freedom in the state of Illinois. If you have driven through Illinois, you may have seen their signage along the highways and byways.

My minor critique of this event should in no way take away from the hard work they have done, the things they have accomplished, or their future activities. They have a long row to hoe to make things right in Illinois, and they deserve our support.