Illustrating the fact that so-called “gun buybacks” don’t accomplish anything, either in Boston or anywhere else, Beantown’s gun buyback—which Mayor Martin J. Walsh launched proclaiming that “removing guns from our neighborhoods is at the heart of our violence prevention”—so far this year has netted a grand total of one gun.
In contrast, similar efforts last year in Boston yielded 410 firearms, suggesting that whatever old, broken, unwanted or worthless firearms that widows and gun collectors had stowed away have already been sold to the city—with significant profits for the sellers and more red ink for Boston—while Boston’s murder rate rises.
Here’s a crazy idea, Boston: Instead of spending money you don’t have ... to buy guns people don’t want ... at higher prices than they’re worth ... to accomplish a lot of nothing, why not spend that money on something that works—like police and prosecutions?