We’re kidding… the one gun collected through 8 1/2 months of Boston’s 2015 gun buy-back could be a long gun.

The Walsh administration’s much-touted gun buyback program has taken in just one firearm so far this year — a stunning drop from the more than 400 that came in last year, putting police woefully behind last year’s pace in the overall number of guns they’re removing from the street, a Herald review found.

Boston police say the program is still active and funded — though a spokesman couldn’t say to what level — and Mayor Martin J. Walsh yesterday renewed his call for residents to turn over firearms in exchange for gift cards valued from $100 to $200.

But police officials couldn’t say why they’ve taken in just one gun in 2015 after claiming 410 last year.
“There’s no question why the total number is down: The gun buyback’s numbers clearly aren’t on the same level as the guns taken a year ago,” police spokesman officer James Kenneally said. “As long as there’s funding, it’s an option we can provide to community members.”

So-called “crime guns” are almost never collected at gun buy-backs, which instead are typically opportunities to turn in junked, often inoperable firearm that owners couldn’t get anything for in pawn shops.

Enterprising individuals have been known to manufacture simple zip guns out of several dollars worth of scraps to turn in at similar backback programs for gift cards worth 50 times the cost of the scrap materials. Some have then traded these gift cards in to buy new firearms and ammunition.

Isn’t capitalism grand?