Buyback Program Turns Guns Into Gardening Tools
Kevin Felts 12.18.17
There is an old saying, “Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow for those who do not.” The quote has been attributed to Thomas Jefferson, but researchers at Monticello have stated they have found no evidence Jefferson ever said or wrote the statement.
Gun “buyback” programs are nothing new. The premise is, someone can hand over a firearm with no questions asked. Usually, the person will receive a gift card or some other type of reward for handing in the firearm. For example, New Jersey Spent $482K for 4,775 guns, just to melt them.
Some people at New Haven, Connecticut think they have a better idea than New Jersey. The firearms from their gun buying program will be handed over to prisoners who will forge them into garden tools. The tools will then be given to children to make gardens.
NBC Connecticut: Inmates to Turn Guns from Buyback Program Into Gardening Tools.
By turning guns into garden tools, there’s a new and unusual twist for a program meant to get weapons off the streets of New Haven. “Every gun that we get off the street, out of a home that doesn’t need to be there, it’s a success,” Chief Anthony Campbell, New Haven Police, said.
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Once destroyed by police, they will be handed off to inmates who will recast them as garden tools.
In the spring the transformed pieces will be donated to school kids in New Haven, who will use them to grow gardens and then will bring the harvest to area soup kitchens.
Opinion
It is rather ironic that police, prisoners, and anti-gun groups came together for the program to happen. The honest truth is, Gun Buybacks Disarm the Poor. So the poor are handing in their guns to grow gardens for the poor. Hmm.
Rather than spending money on these programs, why not use that money for community outreach programs? Get the community involved in gardening to help feed the needy. Form a local farmers market where produce sold from the garden would go back into the community.
Why continue gun “buyback” programs? Because it gives the gun-grabbers something to brag about: “We got 100 guns off the streets!” Will taking those guns off the streets affect crime? Studies say no.
From the direction Connecticut is heading, the only way a child will know anything about guns is if their parents move to Texas, or read about guns in a Connecticut school history book. The contrast is stark and grim.
