Gun Dropped Off in Chicago ‘Buyback’ Turns Up at Crime Scene

Gun “buyback” programs are absolutely worthless when it comes to improving public safety, but they remain popular among politicians who want to say they’re doing “something” about crime in their communities. 

In Chicago, however, a compensated confiscation program hosted by longtime anti-gun activist Father Michael Pfleger and run by the Chicago PD appears to have actually enabled a crime after a gun that was turned in turned up in the hands of a teenager. 

On a typically brisk day in December 2023, a throng of people gathered in the basement of St. Sabina Church in Auburn Gresham to hand over hundreds of guns.

The scene was similar to dozens of other gun buyback events held at the Catholic parish, where more than 5,100 guns have been exchanged for gift cards over the past 19 years, more than any other location in the city.

That day was marked by excitement, confusion and ultimately chaos after one cop inventorying the weapons at a police station noticed something unusual. A Glock handgun that cops had been admiring was missing. 

A tag identifying the gun had been slipped onto another one, and an envelope for that gun was soon found in the trash. In an office full of cops assigned to inventory the guns and keep them secure, someone had walked off with the Glock.

Police say they found the stolen gun nearly a year later after chasing down a 16-year-old boy. He had allegedly been pulling on car door handles in South Shore, about 5 miles from the church.

The boy’s mother was stunned when she learned the gun had been handed to police at a buyback.

“This is a lot to take in right now,” she told reporters. “How did it go from being turned in to police to a kid getting it?”

That question hasn’t been answered.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, an internal investigation led to a one-day suspension for a police sergeant who supervised the “buyback”, but nobody else has been disciplined for allowing the gun to disappear. And according to the paper, this isn’t the first time this has happened. 

The lost weapon’s journey mirrored an earlier event in which a gun turned in by a Cook County judge disappeared from another buyback in Chicago — only to resurface at a fatal police shooting in Cicero, as the Better Government Association and Chicago Sun-Times reported in 2017.

After that report, the city launched an investigation that lasted more than five years. But investigators decided it would be “difficult and unwise” to question everyone involved in the buyback. So they didn’t interview anyone.

Both cases raise questions about the integrity and logistics of Chicago’s gun buybacks, which are a key element of the police department’s community policing and public relations efforts.

There’s no other reason for these “buybacks” to take place other than public relations efforts. Studies have shown no link to a reduction in crime or self-harm after a compensated confiscation event is held. In fact, one study found a modest (but noticeable) increase in violent offenses after a “buyback”. 

No one is made safer by a “buyback” program, but if the Chicago PD and anti-gun activists can’t even ensure that guns that are turned in won’t end up in the hands of criminals, then they’re not only not helping, but actually doing harm. This isn’t the only reason why the Windy City should scrap its support of gun “buybacks” like the one hosted by Pfleger, but it’s reason enough to say bye-bye to the “buybacks” for good.