Durham county gun buy back announced

No questions asked to those turning them in…but they didn’t say anything about everybody left standing there with firearms in their hands.

Wonder if they ran plates of every vehicle that showed up?
 
NCFubar said:
I was told by someone who had a firearm stolen in Durham and recovered in another case that they had to prove they had purchased the firearm … basically produce the original sales receipt … to get it back. Even then court/sheriff or whoever made him jump thru so many hoops it was silly. Now add in that the county takes custody in a buy back and you don’t know it I seriously doubt that fat fart or any of his minions are going to do any work to try and reunite a person and his property … I am betting it’s going off to be scraped ASAFP.
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Now there's one positive to getting a BOS!
 
BigWaylon said:
No questions asked to those turning them in…but they didn’t say anything about everybody left standing there with firearms in their hands.

Wonder if they ran plates of every vehicle that showed up?
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Oh I guarantee they had one of those plate scanning cars judiciously placed.
 
Adding to what @Bahamadon said;
I arrived at 2:02 at the Stadium location. I was expecting to see a line set up for cars to loop around. Sheriff was set up in the back corner because there was a carnival of some type happening at the other end of the parking lot. People were out of their vehicles standing in a line. It wasn't even clear that it was the correct line. There were about 15 people in line when I got there.
At 2:10 a major announced that there was not enough money to process everyone in line (about 25 people at that point). Nobody walked the line to find out how many firearms each person had compared to the number of gift cards available.
At 2:30 they took a guess how many people they could still pay. They also announced that the church site had run out of funds.
At 2:45 I got a gift card for my Marlin .22 single shot with a broken stock. I was the next to last person to get paid. I was told that I had to sign for the card, but I could sign any name I wanted to. I picked John Browning. Durham is safer with that gun "off the streets" :rolleyes:

It is certainly true that some people stood in line with firearms (I was one of them) that were unchecked. I had the bolt pulled back and a chamber flag in the barrel. We were doing this to help show who only had one gun, while the people with multiples left them in their vehicles. To be fair, I was the one breaking the rules (as they were posted on FB) but nobody from the event asked me to take it back to my car. The FB posting also made it sound like we would be waiting in our cars the whole time as well, and that was not the case. I'm sure @Bahamadon will call me out if he saw me sweep anyone (black hoodie, bald white guy, holding a .22 bolt rifle single-shot) and if I did I deserve the criticism!

I only got paid because the guy in front of me had multiple long guns, and they didn't have enough gift cards for all of them, so he bailed instead of only turning in a couple.

The whole thing was a complete cluster-f! I spoke to a captain while I was being processed. They were recording serial numbers on the spot instead of taking them back to the station and doing that later. I can only assume that was done to avoid county employees nicking anything worth nicking. It slowed the process down immensely. He said they started with $15k, and I assume that was split between the two sites. The only sweeping I saw was the deputies swinging barrels around while looking for said serial numbers. I don't know what might have happened in line behind me. There was no function check that I saw beyond confirming the action worked. The woman issuing the payments said in my presence that they still had ALL of their $200 gift cards (for assault rifles). This means they had pre-purchased the cards in the amount of $100/150/200 instead of a ton of $50 cards and giving people multiple cards. It also means that if someone turned in 2 long guns, they gave out two $100 cards instead of one $200 card.

They should outsource events like this to someone who knows how to handle a line (Chick-Fil-A). If you are not going to arrest anyone for turning in a stolen gun, record the info at the station later.

I personally saw nothing but crap turned in. A lot of rust, and at least one Rohm (which brought me great satisfaction). They paid less than 20 people total, but because some people left the line I don't have a better count than that. I'm sure it will be touted as a monumental success with more events to come. But make no mistake it was a crap fest that accomplished nothing (as foretold by the prophecy).
 
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NCLivingBrit said:
Oh I guarantee they had one of those plate scanning cars judiciously placed.
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Possibly, but I don't know how much good it did with the carnival going on in the same parking lot. Less than 10% of the cars were there for the event.
 
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Funny it was happening at that carnival. When i was 14, me and a few friends were at that carnival and a guy in a pickup pulled up and said hey guys wanna buy some guns. We ran over and the whole bed was filled with long guns. All looked beat up and rusted, mostly single shots. We said no and he drove off... just ironic to me.
 
This is the pinacle of government effectiveness. They say they do something, throw a few dollars at it, but in reality all they've done is spend some of our money while doing nothing about the real problem. Our country can't fail fast enough. :rolleyes:
 
that's about how it usually goes. a few rare gems will show up sometimes, but it's mostly junk. and i'm amazed at how they keep running out of cash down here. up in MI they would run for hours straight. Those were good times, because you could shop around the crowd, poach people out of line, and turn in your own crap gun at your leisure.
And there was always the one "totally normal civilian" with the crew cut and 511 khakis turning in his AR15 for $100, which could not be bought from him for any price (and we waved wads of cash just to check) just at the same time the news vans rolled up...
 
I will share that the major from the sheriff department said that this is funded by donations and asset seizures from drug dealers rather than by tax money.

That makes me feel like it our duty to sell our junk for money from the mad moms from safe everytowns, and also let them pay for them to be chopped up.

It also makes me think Durham must have more seized drug money in their coffers to do this again.

I’m writing a letter to the sheriff stating that I think it is a better use of money to provide free gun safes, even though there will obviously not be a lot of those.
 
Mr. Bggs said:
If the money is from seized drug dealers, they should have a whole lot more than 15k... especially in Durham.
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Only if any of it gets back to the station. That 10k they found is bagged, then they log and check the 5k into evidence and that 1k will appear at trial as evidence.
 
Since you put it like that, I'm surprised any money makes it past the arresting officers... especially in Durham🤣😂🤣
 
This was not a serious buyback … Sheriff Fatfart and the Judge backing this are running for re-election and this likely is one of their little campaign stepping stones. Now they can say we’re working on gun violence and Making Durham Great Again or other bovine caca. I call hog and phony show on this “event” … $15K campaigning that the seized funds could have been used for other more effective uses.
 
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NCFubar said:
This was not a serious buyback … Sheriff Fatfart and the Judge backing this are running for re-election and this likely is one of their little campaign stepping stones. Now they can say we’re working on gun violence and Making Durham Great Again or other bovine caca. I call hog and phony show on this “event” … $15K campaigning that the seized funds could have been used for other more effective uses.
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There was a black woman sitting off to the side who was not part of the sheriff office. Was that the judge?
 
And here is the write-up from IndyWeek (former mayor Steve's publication). I'm not posting a link because they do not deserve your clicks. Bolding is mine. If you want to see the article, you can Google "IndyWeek gun buyback".

On a recent Saturday, nearly 100 shotguns, handguns, and assault rifles of all shapes and sizes were unloaded from police vehicles outside of the Durham County Detention Facility.

Some were rusty muskets that looked straight out of the Revolutionary War. Others were sleek black pistols with added metal devices making the gun fully automatic and equipped to kill quickly. Most ominous of them all were revolvers with shiny metal barrels that conveniently don’t drop shell casings when they’re fired.

Michael Taylor, a member of District Court Judge Pat Evans’ community outreach team for her reelection campaign, pointed at one of the revolvers. “That’s the murder weapon,” he said.

The assortment of guns had one thing in common: they had all been bought back from Durham residents by the sheriff’s office April 9 in the county’s first-ever “Bull City Gun Buy Back.”

The sheriff’s office offered Visa gift cards as compensation, $100 for a shotgun, $150 for a handgun and $200 for an assault rifle. At both the Mount Vernon Baptist Church and Durham County Stadium, residents could bring their guns in for a financial reward.

The buy-back event officially began at 2 p.m., but by noon cars had lined up down the block at both locations. The event was scheduled to last until 6 p.m., but by 3 p.m. the officers had run out of their rewards gift cards at both locations. In one hour, they bought back nearly 100 firearms, giving away $10,000 worth of gift cards.

At each location, deputies turned more than 40 people away after they had run out of gift cards.

One man brought in 13 guns. “If someone had broken into his house and robbed him, that’s 13 guns hitting the streets,” Taylor said.

“I was thinking if we got 10 that would be amazing. I’m stunned,” said Lieutenant John Pinner as he unloaded firearms from his trunk.

The buy-back event was organized by Durham County Sheriff Clarence F. Birkhead in partnership with Evans. Both Birkhead and Evans are running for reelection and are on the ballot in the May 17 primary.

The buy-back process was anonymous and voluntary, and there was no limit to how many guns an individual could turn in. The press release from the sheriff’s office stated, “No questions will be asked.”

Guidelines for the event were straightforward: Individuals were instructed to drive up in their vehicles, making sure their firearms were visible, so deputies could then retrieve the guns. Participants were compensated only for firearms that were operational.


“Some people gave us their guns even after we ran out of gift cards,” Evans said.

Evans, a former lawyer with the Durham County District Attorney’s office, has lived in Durham County for 39 years and served as a District Court Judge for the last four.

Fighting gun violence in Durham is one of the main promises of her reelection campaign. She proposed the buy-back event about a month ago as a way to get guns off the streets.

Evans noted that gun violence in the past four years has been especially bad. More than 1,900 shooting incidents have occurred in Durham since the start of 2020, wounding 650 people and resulting in nearly 90 deaths.

The sheriff’s office will catalog the guns collected during the buy-back event, then keep them for six months and issue public notices to verify that there are no legal owners who wish to claim them. Then, Evans will sign an order to have the guns either destroyed or used for training purposes, she said.

After both locations ran out of gift cards, the guns were brought to the Detention Center and loaded onto two large carts. Evans posed triumphantly behind them for photos. As Taylor recorded her on his iPhone, Evans said, “Thank you Durham, for joining us and taking ahold of our vision to make Durham a safer place.”

Evans said another buy-back day may take place later this month. Many residents who brought guns after organizers had run out of gift cards want to come back next time, she said.

Taking guns off the streets is only a first step, Evans added. She favors additional solutions that address the root of the gun violence problem.

“It’s not enough to just take these guns,” Evans said. “We need to replace them with jobs, with mental health treatment, with substance abuse treatment, with tools for people to have a sustainable life.”

This story was produced through a partnership between the INDY and 9th Street Journal, which is published by journalism students at Duke University’s DeWitt Wallace Center for Media & Democracy.
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"One man brought in 13 guns. “If someone had broken into his house and robbed him, that’s 13 guns hitting the streets,” Taylor said."

He was just ballot gun harvesting.

As for "guns hitting the streets," my home was burglarized in broad daylight in 2007 and several guns - including a loaded revolver in a Gunvault that was pried out of the hardwood floor - "hit the streets."

APD took the report & told me to call in on Monday and find out which case officer had been assigned. The woman who answered the phone that Monday said (near a quote as I can remember): "Well, you didn't tell us who did it, and we don't have any leads, so we're not going to pursue it."

She was very nice about it, but ...

Call me cynical, but I can't imagine Durham PD (or any city PD) would be much different today, even in an election year.
 
Windini said:
"One man brought in 13 guns. “If someone had broken into his house and robbed him, that’s 13 guns hitting the streets,” Taylor said."

He was just ballot gun harvesting.

As for "guns hitting the streets," my home was burglarized in broad daylight in 2007 and several guns - including a loaded revolver in a Gunvault that was pried out of the hardwood floor - "hit the streets."

APD took the report & told me to call in on Monday and find out which case officer had been assigned. The woman who answered the phone that Monday said (near a quote as I can remember): "Well, you didn't tell us who did it, and we don't have any leads, so we're not going to pursue it."

She was very nice about it, but ...

Call me cynical, but I can't imagine Durham PD (or any city PD) would be much different today, even in an election year.
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On fairness they basically admitted as much. “We can’t do shit so they’d be on the streets.”
 
Mathieu18 said:
On fairness they basically admitted as much. “We can’t do shit so they’d be on the streets.”
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That’s how I read it. We have no hope of keeping the criminals off the streets, so the best we can do is try to limit how much dangerous stuff they can steal.
 
Windini said:
"One man brought in 13 guns. “If someone had broken into his house and robbed him, that’s 13 guns hitting the streets,” Taylor said."

He was just ballot gun harvesting.

As for "guns hitting the streets," my home was burglarized in broad daylight in 2007 and several guns - including a loaded revolver in a Gunvault that was pried out of the hardwood floor - "hit the streets."

APD took the report & told me to call in on Monday and find out which case officer had been assigned. The woman who answered the phone that Monday said (near a quote as I can remember): "Well, you didn't tell us who did it, and we don't have any leads, so we're not going to pursue it."

She was very nice about it, but ...

Call me cynical, but I can't imagine Durham PD (or any city PD) would be much different today, even in an election year.
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If it wasn't for informants and repeat offenders keeping evidence of their crimes when their luck runs out clearance rates would be even sadder than they are already.
 
"Is that a Sig 365 in the middle white box?"
yes.
a guy turned in a new (bought in August ) 365
and a new Walther P22 with ammo for both.
he was behind me in line, and would not
consider selling to me or the many
people who asked. one offered
$700 for all. no deal.

i sold a Rohm and other worthless junk.
 
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turkeydance said:
"Is that a Sig 365 in the middle white box?"
yes.
a guy turned in a new (bought in August ) 365
and a new Walther P22 with ammo for both.
he was behind me in line, and would not
consider selling to me or the many
people who asked. one offered
$700 for all. no deal.

i sold a Rohm and other worthless junk.
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Well, that guy clearly wanted the virtue signal associated with what he was doing. He could have gotten a better deal from a pawn shop.
 
What was he driving? You could have told him about the potential damage that thing was capable of and offered him 1/10th of what it was worth, you know... to make the streets safer.
 
Sounds like the one that also works for the Sheriff/Judge to make sure they get something good in there.
 
Mathieu18 said:
Sounds like the one that also works for the Sheriff/Judge to make sure they get something good in there.
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I was wondering that, but the absence of any scary black rifles makes me think they weren't smart enough to think of that.
 
as above:
there was some "wheelin-n-dealin" in line.
(not ON line)
maybe black rifles brought more than the
$200 Durham County was paying.
 
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