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The City of Phoenix’s new gun-buyback program won’t be affected by a new law designed to fight the program, but the law could cut down on any future plans for gun buybacks.
House Bill 2455, signed by Governor Jan Brewer, prevents the destruction of guns turned over during buyback events in Arizona, but a spokeswoman for Mayor Greg Stanton tells New Times it won’t have an effect on Phoenix’s buyback program.
See also:
–Jan Brewer Signs Bill for Gun Rights (As in Giving the Rights to the Guns)
–Mayor Stanton, Unveils Gun-Buyback Program in State of the City Address
Indeed, the new law won’t go into effect for a couple of months, and the program touted by Mayor Stanton and Police Chief Daniel Garcia — which uses private funding — takes place only on three Saturdays in May (details here, if you’re interested).
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The new law — which specifically bans agencies from “facilitat[ing] the destruction of a firearm,” and instead forces them to turn around and sell the guns to dealers — completely defeats the purpose of the gun buybacks, so it’s hard to say whether any such programs will continue around the state after the law goes into effect.
We’d imagine that police departments don’t want to sell guns that they end up retrieving from murder scenes down the road.
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Follow Matthew Hendley on Twitter at @MatthewHendley.
