Inexpensive Good Guns to Replace guns Turned in at Baltimore “buyback” for $200

Inexpensive Semi-Automatic .22 rifles turned in at Baltimore “buyback”

U.S.A. -(Ammoland.com)- On 17 December 2018, the City of Baltimore held a gun “buyback”. The term “buyback” is an Orwellian propaganda term. You cannot “buyback” something you never owned in the first place. It should be called a gun turn-in.  On 17 December, over 500 guns were turned into the police for destruction.

One of them, a small 9 mm semi-auto pistol was turned in by Darlene, as interviewed by the local Fox affiliate, Fox45.

From washingtontimes.com:

A woman by the name of Darlene told a local Fox affiliate that she turned in her 9 mm on Monday in order to “upgrade to a better weapon,” adding that she hadn’t “quite decided” yet what that weapon would be.

Better footage of the firearm turned in by Darlene shows it was likely a Soviet-era 9X18 Makarov pistol.
Better footage of the firearm turned in by Darlene shows it was likely a Soviet-era 9X18 Makarov pistol.

Better footage of the firearm turned in by Darlene shows it was likely a Soviet-era 9X18 Makarov pistol. The pin at the rear of the trigger guard, the angle of the slide to the lower edge of the frame, above the trigger, and the rebated slide at the muzzle end are all good indicators that it is a Makarov.  (I believe the area above the trigger is a polished slide, not the ejection port.)

Darlene had the right idea. A decent Makarov is bringing about $250 on the open market these days. Transaction costs would eat up the $50 difference. Legal sales of pistols in Maryland are heavily burdened with regulation.

What can Darlene get for $200 or a bit more? She can obtain some very serviceable pistols.

She can get a Taurus 24/7 .45 ACP factory blem, $250 at gunbroker.com, at the time of this writing. She would have to look hard to find the blemish.

If she wants something more traditional in a .45, the ATI .45 1911 clone, with steel frame, a good copy of a U.S. government issue .45 is  $329 at gunbroker.com.

The Taurus 738 .380 ACP is also well thought of.  It goes for  $179.99 at gunbroker.com. It is only a little larger than the Ruger LCP.

The Ruger 3810 Security 9 9mm 15+1 is a full sized pistol. It is available in the black polymer model for  $298 at budsgunshop.com.

We do not know if there was any problem with the pistol Darlene turned in.

Gun turn-ins are a magnet for converting malfunctioning and problem firearms into cash. I turned in a couple of beat up and malfunctioning .22 rifles for $100 each at the Phoenix turn-in a few years ago.They were missing a few parts, but could be made to fire, occasionally. I used the gift certificates for cleaning supplies.

My source at the Baltimore turn in made a better deal than Darlene. He purchased a Jennings .380 for a bit over $100 a few years ago, only to find it had a cracked slide and was unreliable. He had an old 16 gauge single shot he did not have a use for. The two firearms brought in $300 cash. “Steve” took the worst two of his old 30 round magazines to the turn-in. They told him they had stopped paying for magazines.

Inexpensive Good Guns to Replace guns Turned in at Baltimore “buyback” for $200

“Steve” ended with $300 cash. “Steve” reported a  heavy police presence at the turn-in. There was a portable command post, and large numbers of police inside the building.

“Steve” was not going to convert the cash into another gun. He was ordering a case of .223 ammunition instead.  A thousand rounds of brass cased .223 can be had for under $300, including shipping.  As Madub Ali told Kim in Rudyard Kipling’s classic, “of what use is a gun unfed?”

It is hard to know how many of the old, broken, and unwanted guns will be converted into new guns or more ammunition.

We know some are. The effect on crime is negligible or non-existent, as noted by numerous academics.  From Freakonomics:

When it comes to gun buybacks, both the theory and the data could not be clearer in showing that they don’t work. The only guns that get turned in are ones that people put little value on anyway. There is no impact on crime. On the positive side, the “cash for clunkers” program is more attractive than the gun buyback program because, as long as they are being driven, old cars pollute, whereas old guns just sit there.

With a $250,000 budget from the city, I am not surprised there was a large police presence.  I am sure many of the officers received a nice Christmas bonus of overtime money.


About Dean Weingarten:Dean Weingarten

Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of constitutional carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and recently retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.

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DanO

Man oh man! Sure wish I could take advantage of Liberal STOOOPIDITY in this “buyback” crap. I got an old Iver-Johnson .32 revolver in BAD shape that I found near the local Tortilla Factory. Would like $200 bucks for that POS.

Ronald Nuxon

Darlene did herself a favor by turning in for money the Makarov. The ammunition for it is not available everywhere and is costly.

Marcus

Maybe in the past, but currently 9×18 Makarov is cheap and plentiful. It costs just a bit more than 9mm (about $10 or $11 per box), and is everywhere online. I also see it in a lot of brick-and-mortar stores nowadays. It’s a cheap and easy caliber to stock up on, and just as potent as .38 Special. Great little round and awesome pistols.

Jim Macklin

I did a top overhaul of a Ford Tempo and made zip guns out of the old push rods. Was going to turn them in for $50 each, for a profit of $800. Muzzleloaders using the oil lube hole in the end and a match. A few grains of blackpowder and a steel .177 BB.
But they changed the rules and I threw the junk away.

Rob

I turned in a 1911 Replica once for good money. They didn’t even notice the barrel was plugged.

Joseph P Martin

A bunch of us turned in beaters, junkers and parts guns at a “buy back” decades ago in Las Cruces, NM. The locals were paying $50.00 for any firearm functional or not. Some of the guys we shoot with were outside in the parking lot paying $75.00 for guns and got some real bargains. Most of us made enough on our “bought back” junk to buy ammo, reloading supplies or put money down on a new gun or partially fund a nice used gun at the local gun shops.

Ron

I’ll bet they did get some good OT pay, just like those that change stop lights,go to football games etc.(College) Tax payer money$$ at work.
I wouldn’t mind getting rid of a ‘clunker or two (mine are all good) in order to get some ammo,gun or whats needed.(reloading dies etc) Gotta keep the streets safe!!

R1

Mike Copeland

Most of the “security” gigs are not paid with tax money as they are off duty work. The pay is actually better than their normal pay but it is covered by the venue.

Bob

Buybacks are political rallies. They are there to play to the cameras. If a political entity (Democrat Party) gets a 30 second slot on the news service, which always happens with these, it is a win. It is essentially a campaign ad financed by the people. Sure, it is a complete waste of time and money for the oblivious community, but the left doesn’t care.