Gun-buyback program to be announced, with sponsors including Nucor

A media event is planned tomorrow morning at Mount Zion Baptist Church in the Central District to announce the Seattle-King County Gun Safety Initiative, described as including “a new gun-buyback effort in Seattle and the surrounding region.” The invitation says it’ll be announced by leaders including County Executive Dow Constantine and Mayor Mike McGinn, with four former mayors co-chairing the initiative, including West Seattleite Greg Nickels. Business and community sponsors listed include West Seattle’s Nucor Steel as well as the Seattle Police Foundation, Amazon, and others, with community partners including the Associated Recreation Council (which runs programs at community centers and park facilities around Seattle). This is all from an e-mail invitation sent to media organizations including ours; we’ll add any other details we find. P.S. This won’t be the first one in our area – in 1992, this Seattle Times (WSB partner) story reminds us, more than 1,200 guns were collected in a matter of days. Some of them were “entombed” in a sculpture donated to the city two years later by the group that sponsored the buyback.

25 Replies to "Gun-buyback program to be announced, with sponsors including Nucor"

  • bridge to somewhere January 7, 2013 (9:07 pm)

    Kudos to Nucor! Incidentally, do they offer tours of their facility? I’m so fascinated by it.

  • Jim Clark January 7, 2013 (9:32 pm)

    probably going to melt them and make rebar

  • David January 7, 2013 (10:34 pm)

    THIS IS VERY SAD TO HEAR! SHAME ON NUCOR AND AMAZON! I will do my best to have nothing to do with these companies and will look to buy rebar made by someone else.

  • Deen January 7, 2013 (11:25 pm)

    How can they possibly “buy guns back” when in the huge majority of cases the gov’t or police dept. never owned them in the first place?

  • Jay January 8, 2013 (5:42 am)

    Nucor does offer tours, although I think they’re somewhat limited. Its very interesting to see what’s going on in there and hear some history about the factory. I assume you can contact their office for info.

  • Erik January 8, 2013 (5:54 am)

    What are they offering. 50.00 gift cards, what a joke. Welfare people will be all over this.

  • carlos January 8, 2013 (6:02 am)

    how many criminals do you really believe will be turning in their guns? probably the same number of criminals that will grow wings and fly away. this will serve to make no one safer and only make criminals more powerful and brazen.

  • Jeff January 8, 2013 (7:10 am)

    Seems like a good way to give people money for their rusted busted antique crap that they then can spend on nice new guns.

  • Erik January 8, 2013 (7:16 am)

    They won’t melt the firearms down. The law enforcement will use the firearms in some sting operation and then loose them like the fast and furious scandal. God forbid our government or law enforcement take any responsibility for their negligence.

  • JJM January 8, 2013 (7:20 am)

    “Buy back” is for want of a better term. They’ll pay someone to turn in a gun in order to get it ‘off the street’.
    My wonder is, what if a gun turned in is traced to a crime. What happens then? Are they going to record who turns in the gun? Would that person then be investigated as to how they received said gun?

    • WSB January 8, 2013 (7:26 am)

      This is all the info we have right now. It was an announcement that there would be an announcement; we’ll get the details in a couple hours. – TR

  • Mike January 8, 2013 (7:57 am)

    Good, keep the guns from ending up in the wrong hands. Criminals steal guns and buy guns. They steal them from stupid gun owners that are too dumb to lock them up. They buy guns at gun shows and from private sellers since there are NO laws that force either to check who they sell to. Only licensed gun shops are required to do valid background checks. Stop the circle of stupidity, stop buying and not locking up your guns. If you don’t have the means to lock it up, don’t own it, use this program to get rid of it or sell it to a licensed and reputable gun shop.

  • carlos January 8, 2013 (8:07 am)

    criminals aren’t deterred by locks. when have you ever heard of a burglar passing up on a house because it had deadbolt locks? place the blame where it belongs and not on law abiding gun owners.

  • Anne January 8, 2013 (8:11 am)

    This is a “feel good”/PR opportunity for local Government. The bad people that have & would use guns to hurt,rob,intimidate, & boost their egos won’t be turning their guns in. That said-if this keeps one gun from getting in the hands of a child-then it’s worth it.

  • Come on January 8, 2013 (8:46 am)

    No offense mike,

    But if I’m not mistaken several guns have been stolen from police officers including that swat gear a couple of years ago. And they “lock up” their guns and I would think you would agree they have proper training. So should we take the guns away from those officers too?

  • Skeptic January 8, 2013 (8:49 am)

    Do the math for a gun buyback. Take the number of privately owned firearms in Seattle in 2012 and divide that by the number of firearms used in a crime in Seattle in 2012 and you’ll get a huge number, probably in the tens of thousands. A gun buyback would need to “purchase” that many weapons to prevent just one crime. That many weapons never show up, making buybacks a waste of effort. These “programs” are done to make the statistically challenged feel like they are doing something to help.

  • C&R_collector January 8, 2013 (12:36 pm)

    I have seen this at many “buy backs” I have gone to;
    Grandpa passed several years ago, grandma now has a few old rifles/guns she doesn’t know what to do with. Someone tells her she can get 50$ for that old rifle/gun. So another 1885 Winchester highwall is lost.
    I have stood on the sidelines at these “shows” begging the person to consider selling me the firearm at a much higher price than they are offered for turn in. Some times it works, but 75-80% of the time the sellers are brainwashed into thinking they are doing the right thing. We all know that getting that Savage “Pepper Box”, “off the streets” will end crimes.

    Maybe its time I sponsered a “buy back”. I’ll guaranty none of the guns I take in will be on the streets.

    • WSB January 8, 2013 (12:50 pm)

      The point made time and time again at the announcement was *not* that this is about crime alone, and our coverage points that out. Multiple speakers stressed it’s also about making sure someone doesn’t just have an unwanted gun lying around that a burglary would steal and use in a crime. Or that might wind up being fired accidentally. And a huge issue is the high percentage of suicides that involve guns. There are other ways to end your own life, but none quite so quick and final – and unsurvivable. Explained in this research: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/magazine/social-health-hazards/guns-and-suicide
      .
      The suicide rate is five times as high as the homicide rate in King County (as discussed in other firearms-related threads on our site). – TR

  • Dan January 8, 2013 (12:58 pm)

    Got a hot gun used in a crime? SPD will take it and melt it down, no questions asked, and pay you for destroying the evidence!

    What idiot thought this was a good idea?

  • Mike January 8, 2013 (1:33 pm)

    “criminals aren’t deterred by locks.” Really? Last I checked you’d need a fork lift and a plasma cutter to open my dads gun safe.
    .

  • Erik January 8, 2013 (3:13 pm)

    WSB-are you kidding me bringing suicides from a firearm in this topic. If your going to be so anti gun then get rid of the military’s guns too. There was a new cherry recruit in my company that went rite outside of our tents in Iraq and shot himself. One week before that a new guy went in the porta crapper shot himself. My point is if a person is going to commit suicide they will find the means and gun restrictions are not the answer.So banning, confiscating, putting new laws in affect will not solve nothing.

  • carlos January 8, 2013 (3:58 pm)

    yes. really. if a criminal wants what you’ve got bad enough they’ll do whatever they need to do in order to obtain it. people use tow trucks to haul atms away. plasma cutters and fork lifts are more easily attainable.

  • mike January 8, 2013 (5:51 pm)

    Ok, since we’re in Hollywood mode… the reality is the more guns that are not locked up, the more the criminals get. Its basic logic. Criminals typically wont spend more than a few minutes to steal items in a home. Negligence is not an acceptable excuse for a criminal getting your gun.

  • Tk January 9, 2013 (1:31 am)

    Aren’t guns at like 4 times their usual market price right now? Esp An AR15? I could pay off my student loans selling my guns. They should think about offering fair market value. I’d rather have them though, for the zombie apocalypse. Ha!

  • may January 26, 2013 (12:21 am)

    This is sad money can buy anything. This is just a way to get guns away from people sad to see.

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