Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 24, 1994                   TAG: 9403260002
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

GOODS FOR GUNS

The initiative came about partly in response to community outrage when a 2-year-old was killed in a volley of drug-related gunfire.

Such outrages are occurring more frequently these days. One response is to become numb to them, to turn away.

Another is to take action. Buy-backs - toys for guns, cash for guns, food for guns - have become increasingly popular, mostly in larger American cities, in recent years.

To be honest, their value is mostly symbolic: a way to express continuing concern about gun violence in our neighborhoods.

Indeed, neither law-enforcement officials who collect the weapons nor program sponsors, typically civic-minded businesses that put up the cash or the goods for the gun swaps, can reasonably claim it's an effective way to stem the tide of gun-related violence sweeping the country.

Most criminals are not likely to show up at the police department and turn in their guns for a pair of sneakers or a cart of groceries. Not when firepower comes in so handy for financially more rewarding drug deals, car thefts, home break-ins and stick-'em-ups for wallets and watches.

Moreover, the numbers of guns given back can hardly make a dent in the number now in circulation. According to Handgun Control, Inc., an arsenal of roughly 211 million guns is out there in the United States.

That figure one day will approach the total population of Americans - the ultimate in security, according to the National Rifle Association's way of looking at things, but a frightening fact for most of us.

Yet this is no counsel for despair. Even if a buy-back program such as Charlottesville's rounds up from law-abiding citizens only 112 guns of that 211 million, that's 112 guns that can't stray into the hands of children who may fire them and kill themselves or others. That's 112 fewer guns available to be stolen and used in crimes.

All of which is worth a cheer, along with the sponsors of buy-back initiatives. They're at least doing something, at least making an effort in the face of the crazy magnitude of guns in mass circulation.

This is more than can be said for some of their representatives in government.