Unequivocally, Jim B. Clarke, first-year City Councilman, is a committed proponent of the concept of public gun buybacks, which has been trying to keep up a furious pace nationwide with the accelerating rate of new gun buyers – ever since Newtown 17 days ago and subsequent gun control chatter.
As a nearby observer of last week’s much celebrated gun buybacks – one downtown, one in the Valley – Mr. Clarke said this afternoon the practice is honorable.
“Whatever we can do to take guns off the street is a good thing,” he said.
“I am talking especially about assault weapons. At the buybacks last week, I understand they recovered two rocket launchers – even though they weren’t operative. Those are things that don’t need to be in the hands of the public.”
What About the Constitution?
The Councilman sought to make a rudimentary point before continuing:
“I support the Second Amendment, and I support the right of people to maintain weapons. But I would draw the line at assault weapons, cheap handguns and things that have the purpose of harming other people.”
It would be instructive to note that the weapons voluntarily are turned in, blindly, anonymously (for monetary rewards). Effectively, the receiving police officers shut their eyes, hand each gun owner a gift certificate, and eventually the weapons – the public is promised – will be melted, without investigations of their roots.
No questions asked or given. Guilt of some gun owners may be assuaged – but nothing more than that happens.
Mr. Clarke readily acknowledged that the buyback concept that almost has become a rage is primarily symbolic. “It is symbolic,” he said, “in that we have about 300 million weapons out there, and (Los Angeles city officials) got their biggest haul ever on last week’s buybacks, a little over 2, 000.
“In the grand scheme of things, does it make a difference?
Drawing a Line
“Let us say it saved one person’s life. Two lives? Would it be worthwhile?
“At what point do you draw the line” to judge whether such a notion is meritorious?
Question: Mr. Clarke was asked how buybacks may save lives? By altering broad public thinking about guns?
“Perhaps,” he said. “And here is why. I am not necessarily thinking the types of people turning in these weapons are people who were planning to go out and rob liquor stores.
“But I believe that the largest percentage of (gun-sourced) deaths occurs in homes among people who know each other.
“Taking a gun out of a home may prevent an incident where somebody goes into a rage with a domestic violence issue, pulls out a gun and kills somebody.
“Well,” said Mr. Clarke, “they are not going to have that gun there.
“So they weren’t thinking about robbing a liquor store. On the other hand, taking out, say, a child. How often do we hear of a tragedy like that?”
(To be continued)
