Officials in Tacoma, Washington want people to drop off guns the same way we drop of library books. By placing gun “drop boxes” into residential neighborhoods –specifically away from police presence– the city hopes that the lack of police oversight will encourage people turn in guns.
No, this is not a joke. The world of stupid ideas is stacked with notables, but its entirely possible this one may take home the All-Time Champion award.
Tacoma Police Chief Don Ramsdell defended the idea saying:
“The main intent and goal is just to get these weapons off the streets.”Melissa Cordeiro, Gang Reduction Project Coordinator for Tacoma, also defended the idea stating:
“It takes out the up-front interaction with law enforcement. They would just have to drop the gun off and later law enforcement would swing by and pick it up out of the drop box.”Commentary from the sane side of the isle has chimed in too. Tacoma Police Union President Sgt. Jim Barrett made (obvious) observations about the usefulness of the boxes:
“Are we really expecting these people to walk down the street to this drop box, with the gun tucked in their shorts, and drop it off?” he asked, “It doesn’t seem to me to be a well thought-out process as of right now.”The amount of lunacy and number of flaws surrounding this idea are too numerous to count, but here’s a few:
Expecting a criminal, someone who uses a gun for illegal activity, to simply turn theirs in thereby diminishing their own job performance prospects is ludicrous. It’s like asking an Uber driver to turn in their oil filter, yes you can still go to work but you just voluntarily made things a lot harder on yourself. Even if the idea were realistic the criminal could sell, pawn or find another way to get rid of the gun in exchange for money or something of value as opposed to just voluntarily giving it away.
Legal gun owners would also opt to sell their firearms instead of just throwing them away. For those convinced this idea would take off the streets — in what universe is placing a box full of guns somewhere away from police eyes a good idea? So here you’d have a box, no matter how secure, that criminals know:
a) Has guns in it
b) Has specifically been placed in an area void of police (to encourage people to use the box)Talk about “lead me not into temptation". Ideas this bad don’t come around everyday but when they do you can bet your bottom dollar on this; they’re the brainchildren of liberal politicians and bureaucrats who are driven by their ideological notions of a utopian society.