Buying back guns
The issue of gun violence has risen up the U.S. political agenda in the wake of the Dec. 14 massacre in a Connecticut elementary school, in which a lone gunman shot 20 children and six adults dead.
To get guns off the streets, several U.S. cities have run gun buyback programmes, in which police hand out cash or gift cards in return for weapons. Experts, however, have questioned the effectiveness of such initiatives.
A police officer holds a firearm that was turned in as part of an amnesty-based gun buyback program in Evanston, Illinois. Residents were given $100 for each operational firearm they handed in, and were told no criminal charges would be laid.
New Haven policeman Jason Salgado inspects a 22 caliber long rifle at a gun buyback event in New Haven, Connecticut, two weeks after the elementary school shooting that occurred in the town on Dec. 14. The massacre prompted President Obama to lay out the largest package of gun restriction proposals in decades.
A police officer in Evanston, Illinois, holds a firearm that was handed in as part of the buyback programme there. A 2004 report by the National Research Council of the National Academies questioned the effectiveness of gun buybacks in reducing violence. The report found that guns surrendered at buybacks tended to be old or inherited from other owners, and where unlikely to be used in crime.
A police officer inspects a firearm that was handed over in Evanston. The report by the National Research Council also found that gun owners found it easy to replace their firearms.
A policeman talks with a woman during a gun buyback event in Seattle, Washington. Participants were given a gift card for up to $100 in exchange for working handguns, shotguns and rifles, and a voucher for up to $200 for assault weapons.
Police were not the only ones on the scene offering cash for guns. Individuals like David Carnahan (left) offered to purchase weapons privately outside of the Seattle Police Department gun buyback event. As Carnahan looks over a rifle before buying it, another buyer offering money for guns passes by.
A row of men offering to purchase firearms for cash wait outside the Seattle Police Department’s gun buyback event.
Seattle Police Sergeant Paul Gracy (left) seizes a missile launcher from Mason Vranish, after Vranish purchased it outside the gun buyback venue. Police said they would determine whether the weapon could be legally owned by the public. If it can, it will be returned to Vranish; if it cannot, Vranish will receive a gun buyback voucher instead.
The Seattle Police Department sorts guns and ammunition during the buyback event. The buyback lasted from 9 a.m. until shortly after noon, after the event ran out of $80,000 worth of gift cards.
Bullets handed in to the Seattle Police Department lie in a bucket.
Seattle Police Officer R.S. Curtis looks over a M-16 that was turned in as part of the programme.
A small portion of the guns turned in by their owners are stacked inside a truck at a gun buyback held by the Los Angeles Police Department. In 2009 Los Angeles began holding annual gun buybacks. They normally occur in May, but mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced one in Dec. 2012 in response the Connecticut shootings.
