Give Us Your Guns, We'll Give You A Flu Shot

This coming Saturday in Worcester, Mass., the city is sponsoring a gun buyback with a twist — you give them your guns, they give you a flu shot.

Since flu shots only cost about $25 to $30 on average, the city is also throwing in a gift certificate to Wegmans Food Markets, Inc. 

The gift certificates range in value from $25 for turning in a long rifle, $50 for turning in a revolver, and $75 for turning in a semi-automatic. Even for those of you who are as bad at math as I am, this means the city’s top price for a semi-automatic handgun is about $100. 

These insultingly low prices for guns are indicative of the insultingly silly practice of buying back guns to begin with — especially when one considers that most guns in buy backs are simply destroyed. It’s another misdirected way of seeing guns as the problem, instead of understanding that the real problem lies with the criminal who misuses a gun.

How about this? — How about a gun buyback where all the guns taken in are then provided to single, inner-city mothers who spend their nights in fear, wondering how to keep their families safe? 

Or how about a buyback where at least some of the guns taken in are then provided to property owners like Otis McDonald in Chicago, whose home was repeatedly broken into because the laws in Obama’s Chicago would not allow McDonald to own a firearm to defend himself?

If someone would consider a buyback along these lines, then I might actually be interested in a flu shot.