PHOENIX Just days after Gov. Jan Brewer signed a law designed to hinder police participation in gun-buyback events, the city of Phoenix on Saturday held the first of three buybacks that organizers are calling the largest effort of its kind in the states history.
The law Brewer signed April 29 takes effect this summer and requires cities and counties to sell surrendered weapons instead of destroying them.
That basically bars police and supporters of the events from accomplishing their key goal, cutting the number of guns on the streets, and police likely would not participate.
It would be counterproductive of us to be involved in a program where we would buy guns only to sell them back, Phoenix police spokesman Sgt. Steve Martos said. I dont know if that would be a benefit to us.
But Tucson City Councilman Steve Kozachik says the law is so full of loopholes that hes confident the gun buyback events can still be held with police participation.
I could do one through law enforcement, through (Tucson police), tomorrow and put a price tag of $100,000 on them, and no one would bid on them so theyd sit in storage, Kozachik said Friday. Or, in the alternative, I could put a price on them of a penny and sell them to an artist who would melt them down and make them into art.
Theyve really achieved nothing but made fools of themselves, he said of the laws backers.
Theres also nothing in the law that prevents private groups such as the one backing the Phoenix events from destroying guns, although they say they need police participation.
A gun buyback sponsored by Kozachik early this year prompted the pro-gun group Arizona Citizens Defense League to lobby lawmakers to push the law Brewer just signed.
Defense League spokesman Charles Heller said the city was using a flawed interpretation of the law to keep destroying guns from buyback events, and it asked the Legislature to intervene. He said destroying guns is a waste of government money.
Thats a resource. This is a way to bring in revenue, he said Saturday. What theyre saying is that guns are the evil stepchild of society. Thats just plain poor husbandry of resources.
Its clear few agencies would want to do buybacks if they knew the guns would end up back on the streets.
And police agencies are needed to check if the weapons were used in crimes and provide event security, said Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox, who said shes asked county lawyers to look for a way around the ban.
Where theres a will, theres a way, Wilcox said. And if not, maybe we go back to the Legislature next year and say, Look, youve had your fun; now lets get down to business and lets repeal this.
The bill was pushed through the Republican-controlled Legislature despite fierce opposition from Democrats. The GOP members argued destroying turned-in guns was a waste of taxpayer resources.
Democratic Sen. Steve Farley, who represents Tucson, gave a stirring speech in an effort to change some votes to no avail.
Its incredibly disappointing that of all the things we could have done to make our citizens safer, this is the first bill that has gone through, he said after the governor signed it into law. It would have been a vast improvement to repeal the bill from last year rather than strengthen it.
Police estimated that Saturdays buyback at the Phoenix churches netted more than 800 guns. An official tally is expected early this week.
