Gun Buyback Failures: Why Access to Safe Firearm Disposal Information Is Lacking

I have called several District Attorney offices in multiple states over the years to find out if a specific gun buyback program was active. Each time, including most recently, I was told they didn’t know when the next one would be.

My latest call involved asking about an article on their site that wasn’t dated. I wanted to confirm if the program was upcoming or had already passed, but they couldn’t provide an answer.

As a private citizen, this lack of information does not inspire confidence in the efforts of leadership or police departments to remove illegal guns from the streets. To be clear, I am not here to engage in the broader gun debate. I am addressing the difficulties faced by someone trying to safely dispose of illegal firearms.

I am a law-abiding citizen, and on the few occasions I have made these calls for a friend, I have hit a dead end with no answers. If someone who is genuinely trying to do the right thing cannot find this information, it raises a reasonable question about how accessible these programs really are for those who are less persistent.

Leaders, government officials, and police departments carry a responsibility here. It should be easy, safe, and anonymous to get information about disposing of illegal firearms. If the goal is truly to remove these weapons from the streets, providing clear and accessible information should not be this difficult. There is a lot of discussion about the issue, but basic questions about gun disposal continue to go unanswered.

A genuine commitment to addressing this problem would start with making that information available and easy to find.

Please note, the main image was taken at a shooting range in West Virginia with a legal firearm.