Boston.com reports today on a new gun buy-back program: 40 grand to be spent in total, $200 a pop, no questions asked.
Correction: the $200 comes in Target gift certificates. Evidently this is the preferred store of illegal gun owners, representing perhaps the first good PR news for WalMart in some time. Oh, that’s right, Boston doesn’t have a WalMart.
Meanwhile, WBUR reported this AM that the street price of guns in Boston has hit about $300. Turn in your old gun, snag your $200, and then – for just $100 more – you can upgrade to a newer model, fresh from the street!
From an April 2005 Globe article: Richard Rosenfeld, a criminologist at the University of Missouri at St. Louis, found that a buyback program there had little impact on violent crime. In addition, many people used the cash rewards for new guns and others turned in guns they no longer used while holding onto other, more favored firearms, he said.
This is what passes for strategy here in the Hub.
At least Target doesn’t sell guns.
They wear badges with… well targets on their chests. Who’s brilliant idea was that? đŸ˜›