Activists outbid cops for turned-in guns
‘They’re going to destroy firearms; we’re going to put them in hands of citizens’
By Drew Zahn
© 2011 WorldNetDaily
While the Austin, Texas, police were offering grocery cards in exchange for unwanted firearms over the weekend, local activists showed up to outbid the men in uniform, insisting liberty would be better served if the guns were in the hands of law-abiding citizens instead.
At the “no-questions-asked” event held at Oak Meadow Baptist Church in South Austin, the Austin Police Department offered, for example, a $100 Visa grocery card for an unwanted handgun. The activists offered $110 in cash.
“We don’t agree with the ‘Guns for Groceries’ program, because they’re going to destroy most of the firearms,” explained John Bush, executive director of the group Texans for Accountable Government. “The firearms that we purchase, we’re going to put them in the hands of [Texans] who are in need of firearms to protect their families but they can’t afford them.”
The group’s website explains further: “TAG holds strongly to the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms and agrees with the countless studies that show that firearms in the hands of law-abiding citizens makes for a safer city – not a more dangerous environment, as APD’s ‘Guns for Groceries’ implies.”
A TAG video of the gun-exchange day can be seen below:
According to its website, TAG is a non-partisan political action committee “formed with the ambition of reigning in the intrusive and expanding reach of government … to put the reins of government back into the hands of individual American citizens.”
The organization criticized the “Guns for Groceries” program as a merely “feel-good” event that costs the taxpayers money and does little to actually safeguard people, as those turning in guns were not likely to be criminals but “grandmas and grandpas.” It even blasted the event as “an effort to disarm the economically disadvantaged.”
Police on site, however, insisted the program is popular, funded in part by the Greater Austin Crime Commission and the Jastrow Family Foundation and does serve a purpose:
“People who have weapons in their home, it could be possible their home could be burglarized, and the weapon could get into the arms of a criminal,” Lt. Ely Reyes told KVUE-TV, Austin. “It also prevents children from accessing these weapons.”
Please donate and support Oath Keepers mission, every little bit helps!
March 3rd, 2011 at 5:50 pm
Damn I would have gotten in on this one if I knew it was going on. Over to the TAG site to check this out.
March 4th, 2011 at 6:35 am
Turning in a gun for $100? Are people that stupid. Crap, if things got that desperate where I needed to turn in a firearm for $100, I would keep the gun instead and use it to hunt for food, authorized to hunt or not. I wonder how many morons took the bait?
March 26th, 2011 at 6:22 am
Is the Austin PD living in a dream world?Don’t they know the day will come when the feds are going to roll down main street rounding up innocent families to put in their new residential centers.ie fema camps .Why would they think that they and their families are exempt from the Tyranny.We need to stand together or we will certainly fall separete.All the police represent to them is hired muscle.Just like all of us that served this country when the uniform comes of you will be their enemy.I couldn’t belive it untill i read the Miack report. Wake up police we are not your enemies.We abide by the law and respect it.Good job TAG i need to check out your web site and donate to your cause
May 19th, 2011 at 3:10 pm
Awesome story. Awesome group. Wish I could have been there!