Gun buyback Revisited

Last weekend, Supervisor Cohen reported that 70 guns were turned in at the gun buyback- meaning between $7000 and $14000 was spent on this effort (City officials never got back to me to confirm who ponied up the money, but as there was no fundraiser on the GunByGun site, I can only surmise that the money came from the City).  These weren't necessarily guns that were on the streets, as we can't actually tell where they came from because they were turned in "no questions asked".

San Francisco gun buyback in the Bayview a success! 70 guns off of the streets including 5 assault weapons and... http://t.co/a81JTBypGP
— Malia Cohen (@MaliaCohen) December 14, 2013

What we do know is that the Bayview SFPD have taken roughly 150 (give or take) guns out of the hands of criminals over the course of the year through their exemplary police work.  And that's just the Bayview station.  As I wrote last week, we already know that gun buybacks don't significantly affect homicide or suicide rates and are little more than good PR.  What does work is enforcement and good police work like what we see happening in the Bayview SFPD.