Fairfield is buying back guns. Do these programs work?
Studies show buyback programs don't reduce firearms-related crime — but they still offer some benefits.
(Stock image, Graphic by Solano NewsNet)
The City of Fairfield will host a gun buyback event this Saturday at a local church, where community members can turn in their unwanted firearms in exchange for gift cards.
The buyback program is scheduled to take place Saturday, July 9 at the Mount Calvary Baptist Church (1735 Enterprise Drive, Fairfield) between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m.
City officials say firearms, rifles and boxed ammunition will be accepted at the event, with no questions asked of those who decide to surrender their weapons in exchange for gift cards.
A city official told Solano NewsNet that community members will receive $50 Visa prepaid gift cards for every handgun turned in and $100 Visa prepaid gift cards for every rifle surrendered at the event. The prepaid cards can be used at any retailer that accepts Visa.
The gun buyback program is being promoted as a community safety event — one where there will be “less victims, more rewards” — and it’s the type of campaign that other cities have conducted in the past. This weekend’s event follows several mass shootings in the United States over the last few months, including one at an Independence Day event in Illinois that killed seven people. It also comes less than two months after data released by the City of Fairfield showed an increase in reported violent crime in 2021 compared to the previous year.
But research shows that community gun buyback events do little to prevent violent crime in which firearms are involved, with criminologists and other legal experts say the events are mostly for show and that the types of guns that are surrendered during gun buybacks tend to be older firearms and hunting rifles — not the type that are typically used in crimes.
Last month, Solano NewsNet asked the Fairfield Police Department’s community support manager Jeremy Profitt to respond to claims that gun buyback programs aren’t effective in reducing gun violence. In an e-mail, Profitt admitted that “gun buybacks don't necessarily take firearms from those committing crimes,” but said the initiative had another motive: Promoting safe gun ownership.
“July’s gun buyback is part of prevention, helping to reduce the theft or loss of firearms, and letting people know who may not want their firearm, that they have an option to drop it off next month,” Profitt wrote, adding that the Fairfield Police Department also offers free gun locks to anyone who requests them.
“It’s important to support our community and their ideas to help improve Fairfield,” Profitt said. “Prevention, outreach, education, and proactive enforcement are some of the ways we approach violence and crime.”
While gun buyback programs are unlikely to reduce violent crimes in any community, research has shown that they do decrease gun-related suicides. Profitt said mental health outreach initiatives are just as important as gun buyback programs in fulfilling the police department’s mission of creating a safer community.
“With outreach comes education: Letting our community know about mental health services and support, while speaking with our community about safe gun ownership,” Profitt affirmed. “There are many studies that show firearm related to suicide has a correlation to accessibility — allowing the person in crisis time to reach out for help and limiting their impulse during the crisis.”
Though the buyback program probably won’t take crime-connected firearms off the streets of Fairfield, Profitt said patrol officers and other police department staff still have that goal in mind. Last year, the police department took nearly 480 handguns off the streets in the city, he said.
“Reducing and preventing gun violence and crime is not as easy as setting up one gun buyback event,” Profitt said.
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