5/07 Gun Buyback Program Benefits Criminals

Gun Buyback Program Only Benefits Criminals

Jackie Santa Maria

Is [Buffalo] Mayor Byron Brown serious? Let me get this straight. The police officers, firefighters and teachers can’t get their raises, which are due them, but we have money to pay criminals — the same ones we lock up — to turn in guns so they can go back out on the street and buy drugs and maybe even better guns than the police have?

What an insult to the many men and women who risk their lives every day on the job. Please keep in mind that the city had a surplus last year, the Police Department recently hired a public information officer and we have money to pay for a control board.

What in God’s name has this world come to? What will be next? Will we pay criminals for turning drugs in? Instead of a gun buyback program, we need the courts and judges to be “stiffer” with these offenders, not pay them off. What kind of message does that send?

Does the mayor really think that by instituting a program like this that it will prevent what happened to Officer Patricia Parete and other officers in the future? You’ve got to be kidding.

The bottom line is that if criminals want to get their hands on a gun they will. Stop rewarding these people and hold them accountable for their actions.