Report on El Paso Gun “Buyback” October 28, 2023

Gun turn-in events are labeled with the Orwellian term “buyback.” They are not “buybacks”. You cannot “buy back” items you never owned before.

The El Paso gun turn-in event was held on October 28, 2023. It was scheduled to start at 8:00 a.m. It started about 10 minutes early in Ascarate Park. The money for the event came from the American Rescue Plan, where the Biden administration created 1.5 trillion dollars out of totally recyclable electrons. The politicians who receive the money must find a way to spend it. Gun turn-in events are a way to expend money. KVIA.com reported significant money had been handed out by 10 a.m. From kvia.com:

According to El Paso County Commissioner Carlos Leon, $60,000 worth of gift cards were made available by the county to be exchanged for firearms, and by 10 a.m., $51,000 worth had already been handed out.

That amount equated to roughly three hundred guns, including handguns, rifles, shotguns, assault style rifles, as well as antique firearms.

Of the $300,000 allocated for these events in El Paso, $120,000 will be used for advertising and administrative costs.

El Paso was not as gun-friendly as Dallas. The city is a Democratic stronghold. Private buyers were asked by the police to set up across the street from the entrance to the event. El Paso needed an advocate like CJ Grisham.

There were five private buyers at the El Paso event. Police were not as friendly as at the Dallas event. They asked the participants for identification and insinuated the private buyers were doing something illegal. When the participants politely refused, the police officers told them to have a good day and left. The private buyers were dressed in casual attire.

An acquaintance of a participant in El Paso said he would have considered the private buyers to have been federal agents doing sting operations because of how they looked and dressed.

Opportunities to obtain guns for little money picked up after the gift cards ran out. The cards ran out at about 11 a.m., an hour before the event was scheduled to end.

An officer at the event told a participant the police would not destroy “historical” guns. Historical is a flexible term. It is hoped many valuable and collectible firearms were preserved.  One private buyer obtained a Remington 24 or 241, a near copy of the Browning .22 autoloader.

Another private buyer paid $100 for this Oxford Arms Co. double barrel. Oxford Arms Co. was a store brand. The hammerless shotguns made for Oxford Arms in the 1920s and 30s were solid guns, a variation of the Stevens 311. It is common for older rubber recoil pads to deteriorate after 50 or 60 years.

A private buyer obtained this Ruger P94 in .40 caliber at the El Paso event. The Ruger P94 pistols have an excellent reputation as solid, reliable, accurate pistols.

El Paso will be holding additional gun turn-in “buyback” events. Dates for the additional events have not been released at this time. If $60,000 is allocated to each event, two more events are budgeted.

About Dean Weingarten:

Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.