Gun Buyback Bill Advances in Local Government

On Tuesday, the Senate Local Government Committee reported HB 2528 on an 8 - 7 vote. HB 2528 is Delegate Mark Cole's bill establishing that no locality or entity may participate in compensated gun confiscation (gun "buyback") program where individuals are given a thing of value or money in exchange for surrendering a firearm to the locality unless the governing body passes an ordinance authorizing a gun "buyback." The legislation also requires that any locality holding gun "buybacks" sell the firearms to a federally licensed dealer. In many cases those firearms are destroyed. It should be noted that Senator Fred Quayle (R - Suffolk) who claims to be pro-gun voted against the bill.

Please contact Senator Quayle and let him know how disappointed you are that he opposed the bill in committee and ask that he support the bill in the full Senate. Remind Senator Quayle that there is no evidence that gun buy-backs reduce crime. Also, some of the guns turned in may have value higher than the locality paid to acquire it and in these tight budgetary times it makes since that the guns acquired through buy-back programs be sold to licensed dealers instead of destroyed.