Buybacks are a touchy subject in the Second Amendment community. In part, because no one is really buying anything back. The government didn’t own the guns in the first place, so how can they buy them back? The same is true of non-profits that hold such events.

Of course, that’s only part of the problem.

The other part is that they simply don’t work. Time after time, we see that buybacks accomplish less than nothing.

But one such event in New York illustrates just part of why they don’t work.

On Saturday, 60 firearms were turned in to law enforcement at a gun buyback program hosted by the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) in partnership with the Kingston Police Department, and the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office. OAG accepts working and non-working unloaded firearms with no questions asked in exchange for compensation on site.

Now, Kingston, New York is a city of around 23,000 people.

They got 60 guns from a city of around 23,000 people.

Somehow, I don’t think that even touches on the total number of firearms in the city, even in anti-gun New York. And here’s the funny thing. This is actually a good amount of guns for a buyback.

I’ve seen some where they crow about incredibly small numbers of firearms being taken in.

Further, we know that they don’t do anything. Studies have shown they don’t actually do anything. They don’t take guns from criminals, they generally take them from law-abiding citizens who just want the thing gone.

When they do get guns from criminals, it’s likely a gun they want dumped so it can’t be linked back to them.

After all, “no questions asked” means no questions, so they can dispose of evidence in a way that not only doesn’t come back on them but puts a bit of money in their pockets.

Absolutely brilliant.

Plus, let’s be honest, you simply cannot make a buyback work. Offer enough money to make it attractive for people to turn in guns and you’ll get people turning in cheap guns they bought just so they could turn in and net a profit. Offer less and you get nothing.

Frankly, it’s time that buybacks get called what they really are, a virtue signal. It’s a way to look like you’re doing something without actually having to do anything.

They don’t just fail to work, they take money that could be used for programs or efforts that actually might accomplish something useful.

Of course, then they might not get to preen and prance about talking a big game about what all they accomplished. That’s what all of this is, really. It’s performance art masquerading as an anti-crime effort like so many other anti-gun initiatives truly are.

At the end of the day, there are ways to address violent crime, but so-called buybacks aren’t part of it. We know they don’t work. We’ve known this for decades now. Yet because the media refuses to face that reality, people get away with this waste of money for zero actual net gain.