A 9-year-old Boston, MA boy was apparently accidentally killed by his 14-year-old brother Friday. The older boy was reportedly recklessly handling a loaded firearm when it discharged. Now the older boy faces charges including involuntary manslaughter.
The Democrat-controlled city of Boston says today that it will hold a gun buy-back program in response to the tragedy. But that will do nothing to make anyone safer.
Gun buyback programs have been tried for years in cities around the world, including in Boston, but studies show the weapons recovered typically aren’t the ones used in homicides.
“Most of the guns that are used in crimes are fairly new, large caliber semi-automatic pistols,” said Thomas Nolan, a former 27-year Boston cop who teaches criminal justice at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh. “The majority of what you see in these gun buyback programs are revolvers. We don’t even know if these guns are capable of being fired.”
Boston suffered nine homicides in January 2014, crimes which spurred the idea for a gun buy-back. But police say that most of the killings were gang-related. How likely are gang members to step up and sell their weapons in a city buy-back?
Join the conversation as a VIP Member