Keystone Cops are Out of Ammunition

My holiday is now Chanukah. To all who are celebrating it, I wish a Happy Chanukah. And to all of my friends who are now celebrating Christmas, you all have a merry one!


I have long questioned the wisdom of the various gun buy-back programs which are periodically conducted by prosecutors and law enforcement authorities. The entrepreneurial types among the gangs can finance their operations and lifestyles by stealing guns, and then selling them to the DA for $200 a piece, no questions asked.

Nassau County (NY) DA Kathleen Rice claimed that her recent anonymous weapons buy-back was a success.

The eastern boundary of Nassau County, NY, dividing it from Suffolk County, was once (with slight variations) the international boundary between the Dutch New Netherlands and the British New England. Kathleen Rice's successful program in Nassau County can be compared and contrasted with the gun buy-back program across the border in Suffolk County.

The first five paragraphs of the article "Gun-Buyback Glitch" by Ann Givens in Newsday, 24 December 2008, p. A8 [Denoted in Newsday's Internet edition here as "Suffolk Runs out of Cash for Gun Buybacks"] say it all:


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Mark DeAngelis heard that Suffolk County was giving people $200 gift cards to turn in illegal handguns last weekend, so he looked behind a rafter in a warehouse he rents and found a revolver he stashed there 20 years ago, he said.

He called Suffolk's Third Precinct in Bay Shore, confirmed that they were still doing the program and then drove there and turned over the gun, he said.

But after he handed the gun to the officer, he said he got bad news: There was no money left.

"He basically said, 'You just gave me an illegal handgun. We're out of money. Do you have a problem with that?' " said DeAngelis, 43, of Patchogue, who said he bought the gun to get it out of the hands of a man he considered dangerous.

"He said he would give me a receipt if I went in the back and showed him some ID," DeAngelis said. "I just walked out. I thought the whole point was that the program was supposed to be anonymous."
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As explained by Lt. Bob Donohue of the SCPD Community Outreach Bureau, the bottom line is "If they hand us an illegal handgun and we have no money, we can't give back the gun."

And so, Suffolk County's anonymous illegal gun buy-back program is neither a buy-back program, nor anonymous. And the bait-and-switch tactics conceivably might not even be legal!

Accordingly, Suffolk County residents who wish to voluntarily relinquish their firearms are best advised to cross what formerly was the international border, and sell their guns to Nassau County.

Taxation and the Second Amendment

Sometimes the visceral impulse is at odds with the intellect.

For example, South Carolina will hold its annual Second Amendment Sales Tax Holiday on Friday 28 November and Saturday 29 November 2008. All handguns, rifles and shotguns (but not ammunition or other firearms paraphernalia) can be purchased in South Carolina, exempt of the state sales tax, during that window of opportunity.

On one hand, I get a nice warm feeling to know that at least one state is taking a stand in favor of the public's Second Amendment rights.

But, on the other hand, I believe that sales tax holidays are poor policy. They are complicated to administer, are tempting opportunities for tax evasion (and the consequent deterioration of respect for the law), encourage unnecessary consumption for consumption's own sake, and present an increased chance for the individual merchant of an encounter with the taxation authority.

On a personal level, this year, tax savings I might realize would be handily outweighed by the costs and hassles of traveling to South Carolina.

But hey, if you will be anywhere in or near the Palmetto State just after Thanksgiving, you can get a little tax break on your Second Amendment purchases.