Gun rights advocate says buybacks waste of time

Seattle’s first gun buy back program in more than 20 years is Saturday. Sponsors have raised more than $118,000 to fund the effort.

North Bend, Wash. gun rights activist Dave Workman thinks it’s a waste of time.

“These gun buy back programs, they’re good for a headline, they’re good for a sound bite and some film footage but in the long run, I don’t think that they’ve really ever accomplished a reduction in violent crime,” he argued.

The spokesman for the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms also rejects the idea to require gun owners to lock up their weapons. Workman says “one-size-fits-all” gun safety solutions like that don’t work.

“For example, a single person who doesn’t have any children in the house or a retired couple who don’t even have the grandkids in the house, this panacea pandering I’ve never thought was such a hot idea,” said Workman.

Workman told Seattle’s Morning News he’s also skeptical of government research into gun violence, saying previous studies have been politically motivated and biased.