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

DATE: THURSDAY, January 6, 1994                   TAG: 9401060058
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Medium

ARE GUN BUYBACKS MISFIRING?

In part, that is because of the very nature of most gun-buyback programs: no questions asked.

Details on the guns' histories are lacking. And it is impossible to determine that a particular gun surrendered to police would have been used in a future crime.

Time and again, proponents say that if a buyback keeps even one person from being killed or wounded by a gun, it is worth it.

Skeptics say gun buybacks are feel-good initiatives that do more to get politicians good publicity than reduce crime.

And there may be unintended consequences, said Philip Cook, a professor of public policy at Duke University who studies the economics of street guns.

"To the extent that the street guns become more valuable . . . it probably means an increased incentive to steal them or run them from other jurisdictions," he said.

One man who turned in a used handgun to Norwalk, Conn., police for a $100 toy certificate last week had a receipt showing he had just paid $40 for it, Sgt. Gary Mecozzi said.

There also are concerns about whether buybacks hamper criminal investigations, in effect providing a legal fence for guns that were illicitly obtained or used in crimes.

Raymond Kelly, New York City police commissioner when the toys-for-guns swap began here, responded by saying, "We live in extraordinary times . . . We have to do something."

FBI statistics show that 15,377 Americans were slain with guns in 1992 - 68 percent of the nation's homicides. Firearms were used in some 270,000 robberies and about as many aggravated assaults.

There are an estimated 200 million-plus guns in circulation today in the United States, plus 1.5 million manufactured each year.

The total number of guns recovered in various buyback programs around the country since 1974 probably is far less than 100,000, according to figures compiled by The Associated Press and Handgun Control Inc.

Buyback programs date at least to 1968, when Philadelphia tried one. The biggest remains the 1974 swap in Baltimore, which cost $650,000, or $50 per gun.

At the time, police figures showed the rate of gun killings rose 50 percent in Baltimore during the two-month program, while assaults with firearms more than doubled. Police couldn't explain it.

One study of a buyback's effect on crime rates was conducted in Seattle after a swap that collected nearly 1,800 guns in September 1992. Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center gave questionnaires to the first 915 participants; 55 percent voluntarily filled them out.

The study found no statistically significant changes in gun-crime rates during or after the program. Then again, the buyback netted less than 1 percent of the estimated number of guns in Seattle; the researchers estimated at least 20 percent would have to be surrendered to show an impact.