Gun Buybacks Go International, Including the Belief Bad People Will Play Nice

Studies have long shown that gun buybacks don’t actually have any kind of impact on public safety here in the United States. The reason for this is pretty simple. The people you’re trying to disarm with a buyback are rarely the people who take advantage of one. If they do, it’s to dispose of a gun that could connect them to a crime.

Bad people who want to do bad things aren’t going to give up their guns anymore than good people who take their personal protection seriously will.

This is well known, though it’s typically ignored.

Because it’s well known, though, I have to wonder why in the hell we’re taking it international.

The US ambassador to the UN says that Hamas will be urged to cede its weapons via an international buy-back program, providing new details regarding the program Washington plans to advance to strip the terror group of its weapons.

“Independent international monitors will supervise a process of demilitarization of Gaza to include placing weapons permanently beyond use through an agreed process of decommissioning, and supported by an internationally-funded buy-back and reintegration program,” US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz says in remarks to the Security Council.

The remarks confirmed The Times of Israel’s reporting from recent months about plans to institute a “buy-back” program where participants would be given funds or jobs if they agree to hand over their weapons. It is part of a broader decommissioning initiative that the Gaza ceasefire mediators are pushing that would see Hamas gradually hand over its arms, starting with its heavy weaponry.

The problem here is that Hamas isn’t a traditional military. They’re a terrorist organization that has long used asymmetrical warfare tactics to try and break Israel.

We can offer money or jobs all we want, and they might even hand over a lot of guns to get those, but does anyone really think that an organization like Hamas, that literally wants to destroy Israel, will both hand over everything and refuse to get guns from their buddies in Iran, simply because we’re offering them a few bucks?

Israel is less than thrilled by this, by the way, but not because a buyback with Hamas is stupid. They don’t like the gradual effort that prioritizes heavy weaponry over lighter weapons. A handful of Hamas fighters with AKs can do plenty of damage in Gaza, after all, and we all know it.

And I admit that’s kind of dumb, too.

Terrorists are criminals. Like domestic criminals, they’re not going to just decide to play nice without a very good reason for it, and considering how Hamas is a radical Islamist group, that’ll take something far more profound than getting their butts kicked after knocking over a hornet’s nest on October 7th.

My concern, and I think it’s a legitimate one, is that we’re going to see an awful lot of money spent, a lot of people patting themselves on the back, and then we’re going to see Hamas go back to their old tricks before we know it.

So-called buybacks don’t work here. They didn’t even work in Australia, which is why they keep having to have a new amnesty every few years. Why would anyone think they’ll work with a terrorist organization?

Editor’s Note: The mainstream media continues to lie about gun owners and the Second Amendment. 

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