The Great Pennsylvania Gun Buyback
Together with our community partners, we held several successful gun buy back events over the summer. I’m happy to announce another two buy backs will be held this weekend in Philadelphia. Do your part to keep your neighborhood safe, Attorney General Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania said.
He does admit drug and gun crimes are intertwined. He does not explain how he will remove guns from drug traffickers and gangs. The likelihood they will turning their guns is nil.
Early research on gun buybacks, mostly from the 1990s, largely finds these programs ineffective at curbing gun violence. Recent research frames gun buybacks in a more favorable light. On their own, buybacks might not be effective if the goal is to use them to directly reduce violent crime. But research shows buybacks can help if they’re part of a broader effort to reduce gun violence, journalistic resource.org reports.
Ok , bottom line crime is not reduced by gun buybacks,
In six months after the Governor deployed the Office of Attorney General’s Strategic Response Team to work with the Philadelphia Police Department. The best way to shut down drug and gun trafficking organizations across the region is to work together he said.
How many of those guns were confiscated from gun and drug traffickers was not detailed.
Gun tracing is on his agenda.:
- Pennsylvania requires law enforcement to identify a crime gun’s source with tracing info from the ATF, yet most crime guns are not submitted to shared law enforcement databases. The Office of Attorney General will ensure crime guns recovered in its own operations are uploaded efficiently and will facilitate conversations with local police departments to ensure data input is occurring across the Commonwealth. The Office will also form the Track + Trace Working Group, a top-tier, collaborative partnership of federal, state & local law enforcement that will focus on increasing information sharing and other gun trafficking efforts.
- Gun Retailer Responsibility: The Office will work with gun retailers to increase the use of electronic record of sale, a modern and smart tool that will allow law enforcement to quickly trace guns found on crime scenes or in the hands of criminals. Pennsylvania law requires retailers to obtain a record of sale, but most currently use paper records that must be mailed, creating a backlog and holding up investigations.
The AG also addresses the opioid crisis:
In July he announced a historic agreement with Cardinal, McKesson, and AmerisourceBergen—the nation’s three major pharmaceutical distributors—and Johnson & Johnson, which manufactured and marketed opioids, to deliver up to $26 billion to address the opioid crisis. The agreements also require significant industry changes that will help prevent this type of crisis from happening again.
“No amount of money, no number of sanctions, will be able to right these wrongs. But this settlement puts in place controls that will go a long way to make sure that this never happens again, and the money that will come to Pennsylvania will help offer and expand life-saving treatment options across our Commonwealth,” said Attorney General Josh Shapiro.