Are gun buy-back programs over in Phoenix?
Sep 20, 2013, 5:00 AM | Updated: 5:00 am
PHOENIX — Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton isn’t ruling out the possibility of more gun buybacks even though they can no longer be melted down, thanks to a new Arizona law.
Stanton said state lawmakers should not be in the business of making decisions for police agencies.
“When we politicize law enforcement, generally bad things occur,” he said.
It cost Phoenix around $10,000 to destroy the guns seized in the buybacks with a total of 175 hours of police overtime. But Stanton said the guns were collected with the help of big donation from Basha’s.
“So if a donor was to come forward and felt that working with law enforcement was a good idea, then absolutely we would do another gun buyback program,” he said. “I don’t know if law enforcement would want to do it to be perfectly honest.”
Phoenix was able to destroy 2,000 guns that were turned in during gun buybacks earlier this year before a new Arizona law took effect last week that prohibits buyback guns from being destroyed.
