Columbus, Ohio getting ready to waste $100,000 on a gun "buyback", even though there's no evidence whatsoever that these compensated confiscation events reduce crime, accidents involving firearms, or suicide. As far as the gun control lobby is concerned, any effort that leads to firearms "being taken off the street" is a good thing. And for the officials who put on these events, the positive headlines they generate is worth the cost of the "buyback", especially when they're able to sucker local businesses and philanthropists to pony up the cash that's doled out. 

The head of the city's Office of Gun Violence Prevention, however, is taking that ideology to whole new level. In defending the city's "buyback", Rena Shak uttered a statement to the CBS affiliate in Columbus that might very well be the single dumbest statement about guns and crime that I've ever run across. 

“We certainly understand that the guns we are recovering may not be all of the guns committing crimes in this city, but it’s one less gun that a child could get their hands on, it’s one less gun that could be left in a vehicle and get stolen, it’s one less gun that someone could self-harm with,” Shak said. “Any gun that we can take off the street, out of somebody’s house that’s unwanted, out of the hands of a child is a win for us.”

Shak's comment is ridiculous on multiple levels, starting with her assertion that guns, not people, are committing crimes in Columbus. Shak should check with the Columbus police to find out how many firearms they've arrested for homicide or aggravated assault this year. She might be shocked to learn the number is zero. 

This is part of the problem with the phrase "gun violence". Behind every violent act that involves a weapon, whether a gun, knife, baseball bat, or any other implement, there's a person using that inanimate object to do harm. Shak removes the human element from the equation entirely, except when it comes to "self-harm" or gun owners who (in Shak's view) allow their guns to be stolen). 

Still, Shak has big plans for this year's event, which is tentatively scheduled for September 14th. 

“This year we’re looking at location. We want to make sure it’s somewhere central so everybody around the city has easy access to the location. Somewhere that has a large parking area that we can have two lines of cars to process as opposed to the one we had last year,” she said. “These gun buybacks take an incredible amount of officers from our CPD units to come in and help process. It takes lab technicians, the amount of manpower it takes for that period of time is way more than anyone would expect.”

So not only will the city be wasting money, they'll be frittering away manpower as well. 

Shak touted the supposed success of last year's "buyback" to WBNS-TV, pointing out that because the city paid up to $750 per firearm, it was able to "incentivize people to bring those firearms in so we could have them destroyed.” 

What Shak didn't tell 10 News is that some of those folks who participated last year used that cash to go buy more guns.

It was worth the long wait this past Saturday morning at Trinity Baptist Church on the Eastside for those with way too many guns on their hands. The City was buying any gun a citizen had to offer – even 3D printed guns, which are illegal – with no questions asked. Some of these same citizens walked away with hundreds, and in some cases, thousands-of-dollars’ worth of gift cards from the City.

“It took me about three hours to get to where the police were,” said a source who did want to offer his name for publication. He lives outside Columbus and walked away $2,000 richer. “I went right to the gun store and bought some more guns.”

The City was offering up to $750 per gun, and the source told us he was able to get a gift card for a 3D printed gun. He had not printed and assembled the gun just for this buyback, but it’s certainly possible other sellers had done so. The City bought 344 guns for $136,600.

I guess the good news for those living in or around Columbus is that they'll soon have the opportunity to upgrade their gun collection, thanks to the largesse of city leaders like Shak. The city's upcoming "buyback" won't lower the crime rate, and it may not even reduce the amount of firearms in Columbus, but so long as police are able to collect a few hundred garbage guns, officials like Shak and Mayor Andrew Gintner will undoubtedly declare it a success.