$49,000 - That's one persons salary for the year that was wasted on this program. (And that doesn't even factor in the added overtime for all the cops there, renting out the church space, the collection, cataloging serial #'s and the future destruction of the guns, too). I'm sure when you add up all the the cost, its prob MUCH higher than $49K.

And the # of criminals who turned in their guns? ZERO! All this program accomplished was to waste more tax payer money (that everyone but the politicians know we don't have).

Exactly this program does nothing... it was a waste of money and please tell us how many criminals showed up?

And maybe if these programs paid more money they would have collected more guns... In today's market you can easily add on a zero to the end of those prices and that's what ppl are paying

I'd love to know what kind of Assault Weapons they collected. My Ruger 10/22 originally came with a 20 round mag., which I gave to friend living in PA. This would make an Assault Weapon here in the Socialist Republic of New Jersey. However since I bought a 10 round Mag., it's just a pinkster now.

I sincerely hope this program does some good, unfortunately I think NJ bought junk left from relatives that have passed away or from people who don’t go to the range anymore. I seriously doubt that if ballistics were to be run the Police would find bodies on any of these guns.

So....

"""Those who chose to relinquish their weapons did so without having to reveal their identity, address or town of residence, the acting prosecutor explained.......""

But now they are going to check them to see if they were used in any crimes? (ballistics?)

Sounds like a great place to ditch the murder weapon.

It's the only legal way the Govenment has to disarm us. The so called excuses that those guns will be misused by children or stolen from homes is anti gun propaganda. People should instead learn how to use those guns in case they need to exercise their God given right to defend themselves.
By the way, the UN is once again trying to disarm us and negotiate a small arms treaty. The Sec. of State (yes, the same guy who sold out his fellow soldiers during and after the Vietnam War along side of Hanoi Jane), says he will make sure there is no language restricting Americans ability to buy or keep guns. The purpose of the treaty is aimed at disarming US citizens. Remember, if the President signs on and it's not voted on by the Senate, the treaty will become law and supersedes the Constitution. Don't rely on me. Read the treaty.

I think the qoute is "stupid is as stupid does".

This can only end in one way. That is to now allow Registered Hunters who are capable of purchasing rifles with a permit. To now come and purchase guns from them at 1x the price they paid to give the county back its funds. This also prevents rifles and shotguns that are rare and collectable to be destroyed. They are part to Americana part of our history. Unless the authorities already are offering those guns to its members? But this resale back to regular people who are licensed to buy place's back into the hands - of someone who could never afford to buy a great gun- own one. What was taken off of the streets were guns that mostly seniors turned in. SAVE THIS HISTORY NOW BEFORe ITS TO LATE…..

Of, By and For the people, except if you want to have a gun. Actually, except every other way too.
Attention people::: I have the solution to your lost personal freedoms. Become a cop or other government employee. Because this land has become of by and for the government.
And you allowed it by arguing among yourselves. Its not good enough for some people to decide they don't want or need a gun. That they'd rather call the police and wait minutes upon minutes in fear and terror for help to come; hoping they do come rather than set up outside 'for their safety'.
But those people apparently have to join forces with the government to take away guns from people that want to own them.
Ps. the guns used recently in Conn. were not legal guns. They were illegally stolen from the criminals
This country has been overtaken by the so called representatives, fueled by the whiners and complainers, and separated by ignorance. Congratulations on your world dominance for 200 years. Now step aside, like all the other former powers. Where are they now???

Correction: The Conn guns were illegally stolen "BY" a criminal. From the legal owner, (the mom)
Sorry I didn't see my fingers type it that way.

Fourscore, you are correct in the fact that you have the right to not own a weapon. Remember this if the time ever comes that you need to protect yourself or family; for like a parachute, a weapon may only be needed once but that once it could be a life saver.

Kramit, where did you get your information/speculation? Did the mother come to you in a vision?

"The people who brought in these guns don't have to worry about their house being robbed by the bad guys, because these guns won't be used for any illegal purpose,"

What the....? The people who brought in these guns are now defenseless if their house gets robbed.

Do you now put a sign in front of your house that says - "no guns here - I turned them in to the State?"

You might as well put a sign up that says "come in and take anything you want - I'm powerless to stop you."

Regarding gun collections: I have a friend whose father was a State Policeman for 25 years. In his bedroom closet he kept a variety of automatic weapons, including an M14 and a Thompson machine gun. When I visited my friend, his father would remove the guns from storage and display them to us, telling the background and the capability of each weapon. He also told us that they were all "picks" that he and other state policemen had sorted through during voluntary gun collections. Although the press had reported that the guns collected had been destroyed, those were only guns that remained after they, the police, had gotten their "picks." Point being, the most "attractive" and lethal guns were never truly "removed" from society. That is why I do not trust these kinds of programs. Same goes for huge drug busts where supposedly tons of drugs destroyed. Really?

@ Kram-idiot! Are YOU really that dumb? You found one line, in one article, in one liberal rag, that vaguely makes a statement intentionally hovering over any real fact.
"The police in Connecticut believe that Lanza’s mother, a gun lover herself, was an enabler of her son’s increasing obsession with guns, that she was making straw purchases of guns for him all along, and ignoring the fact that he was getting more and more fixated on them."

OK What police? The writer's friend 82 miles away? And if it were so, why would only one paper find this amazing fact? And making straw purchases for him? Or was it for herself that he stole? And..... it states 'believe', not proof. And further, enabling doesn't make you complicit, no different than your family isn't an enabler of your liberal, left leaning idiocy. Are you that dumb?

This is the reason we are doomed. And nobody believes it because nobody believes it 'can' happen. We have had too many spoiled years of riding high. I can't wait because it will be all you liberal, government takeover supporters that lose first. Because gov't will tend to themselves. So will I. You will be the only people sorry for your idiocy.

Yes Parsippany Resident -- Kramit the Frog is THAT dumb. You have to read his crap on the Parsippany school superintendent story.

What a waste of taxpayer money, yes taxpayer money no matter what they claim. Money is a fungible commodity, any money used is money that must now be replaced by taxpayers. I can't believe they were paying $250 for BB guns, had I known I would have gone to PA to buy a few to sell to them, oh well my loss.

Now they are going to further waste more taxpayer money by melting them down, really? Any sane business would figure out a way to legally sell them to recoup taxpayers money - but not our government.

Then there is the joke that people that turned them in now don't have to worry about bad guys - in what world does that comment even make any sense what-so-ever. This whole thing is as stupid as much of what feel good crap our government does that in reality just wastes money. Put it right up there with not letting you carry your shampoo on an airplane.

What insult? Kramit up your frog? All I did was repeat what you said. Now suddenly it makes my case weak? Therefore, does it make your case weak too since you started it. You started it. You started it. Sticks and stones. Boo hoo. I want to control everyone else. I think I will demand the government do so for me.

Insults?? Internet trolls? Hard time figuring things out? Now who is name calling?

And now a family snack, whose purpose in existence is to be eaten, if kept in a communal area of the house, is equal to guns that are owned by others? Funny when I lived at home I ate cookies and pbj sandwiches and I actually stole water out of my father's faucet, but I knew his guns were not to be touched!!!

But I'm used to liberals making off the wall and twisted comparisons.
So try this comparison for size..... Individual freedoms, individual rights, individual everything, is what gave you the right and ability to come on this fine upstanding news forum to spew half truths. So lets boil it down.. Or as some of you say, the end of the day, or the bottom line, or lets get on the same page...... Here it is. You do yours and I'll do mine and stop wasting your average intelligence figuring out arguments to impose your way on others. Period!!!

@Dave skinny neck tie... Not only did I not gloss over the bush years, but I never mentioned or thought of Bush, nor is he a conservative, nor am I, and my thoughts of government intrusions have more to do with individual rights, which liberals are known for trampling. Thanks for asking

I've seen gun buy-back programs described as "compensated confiscation." ...seems fitting.

@four score = 80 years of idiocy.
My source of opposition is not from a collection of newspaper articles twisted, I mean written by the same ilk. My source is that which was conceived in the mid 1700's, fought for thereafter, and lived by almost ever since. Conceived on the notion that tyranny is oppressive and further tyranny without representation is intolerable. And I see this government heading back to that condition, and furthered by the people herein, based on the inerrant 'freedoms' of speech that very system allowed. Its a contradiction that in a country supposedly full of freedoms, we use one of those freedoms to impose restrictions on others within the same system, and come up with clever arguments or newspaper articles to support such restrictions.
I once had a female friend ask me to explain to her 'why' anyone needs a gun. My response was to ask her to explain to me 'why' she thinks I have to have a reason.
She is from a country that has been tread on for centuries. Now she is here, and free, and supportive of restrictions on others. I just do not get that thinking.

You can purchase a Mossberg .22 cal Plinkster for about $150. Take a 1 3/8 forstner bit and drill a hole through the stock right behind the grip. You now have a semi-automatic weapon with at least one characteristic of an "assault weapon"--a thumbhold stock. Add a bayonette mount at the business end and I suspect you have an assault weapon, which you can turn in for what, $275? Back out the $15 NICS check fee when you buy it at Dick's Sporting Goods and you can make a tidy profit on these turn in deals.

Weary of being a felon, I turned in the Marlin 60 .22 my grandfather bought me when I was 14 years old. The Morris County Sheriff at first refused to pay me $250 for what he called a "plinking rifle." I promptly produced the NJ State Law on "assault weapons" and a state court case where the owner of said plinking rifle went to jail for possession. I also showed him a news story where a state senator had called the Marlin 60 a "people killing machine." Needless to say, I got my cash, but lost an important part of my history. So, the county is now claiming how much safer the Morris is, but the only thing safer from my perspective are county squirrels. And I got $250 for a rifle that sells new for $125. It proves that some laws are dumb, and the politicians that make them even dumber.

Excuse my naivety, (and I am not trying to turn the subject here), but if all states simply had laws that stated something like, "persons apprehended in committing a crime, using a gun, either registered or unregistered, automatically will receive a 25 year, no parole, hard labor sentence," AND that the laws be enforced, wouldn't that be effective? Why or why not?

Their idea of illegal assault weapons is bull crap. They classify anything with a collapseable stock, pinned or not, detachable mag or not, an assault weapon. Such as a 22 rifle mentioned in a previous comment. 15 illegal assault weapons given up. I call bs.

Mr. Steketee, My suggestion wasn't to solve the "underlying crime problem," rather to instill fear into criminals who would use guns, and if they did, then get them off the streets, permanently. Our prisons seem to have revolving doors and the same people are "in and out," in short time, committing the same crimes, many times using guns. If I were a criminal, and I was thinking about breaking into a house and stealing something, the potential of 25 years in prison would make me think twice about carrying a gun.

Prison for gun criminals, be serious. Our prisons are just a place for unionized workers to collect money from tax payers while providing free room and board for criminals to get masters degrees in how to be better criminals. Just look at the percentage of people released that just end up back in the system.

Its about time we make people in prison do nothing but make little rocks out of big rocks. Maybe they would learn to respect society then.

I *sorta* get that if you have a gun around the house that you want to get rid of, maybe this "amnsety" makes sense, since who-the-hell-knows what laws you are breaking just by having one any more.

But why are taxpayers putting out money to buy and melt legal guns? Why does someone who owns an illegal gun get paid for that act?

And are ballistics tests done on each? Or did we just melt the gun that fired the magic bullet?

The whole mindset is disturbing. Government nannysm.

War on drugs, and the other war on prostitution don't work because our stupid government targets the wrong people. Suppliers make lots of money, and when you take one out there are several others waiting to take their place. You have to go after the demand. That means you arrest the users and the johns. The majority of those demanding these things are otherwise law abiding citizens and when they see what it costs them to be arrested they will likely stop using. When demand dries up you no longer have to worry about supply.

Well if you make prison a real prison they will fear it. No socializing, solitary confinement only, no body building, tv, internet, etc.... I think we should even forego torture on first time offenders :) But if you put them in cells like the animals they are then maybe they can be domesticated.

Guess I am not making myself clear. 25 years is life. And as far as I am concerned you can make it 40. I don't care that they are old, unproductive people when they get out, at least they are not harming people while they are in prison. Will prison reform them? Heck no! Nothing will reform them. Is prison "a place for unionized workers to collect money from tax payers while providing free room and board for criminals to get masters degrees?" Probably, but with 25, 30 or 40 year sentences,without absolutely no parole, where are they going to use those degrees? Sure, you can talk big about having a gun in your house and using it to protect yourself when someone breaks in, (if you are even home at the time), but be prepared to defend yourself in court for shooting someone. Good luck with that. I have heard too many horror stories where the homeowner suddenly turns into the defendant.

My, my. I see no reason to be rude. "depth of your ignorance." What do you know of me? Nothing. But yet you are quick to label me as ignorant in the same sentence that you accuse me of categorizing people. Why can't forums like this exist without people being rude and calling names? Why so much defensiveness?

what a bunch of dum azzzes. That is my tax money your wasting. I can not stand this state. It is time to move and take my business and jobs with me.

Actually, Dave, I have more than my intuition on which to rely. I have availed myself of defensive firearms courses taught by NRA certified instructors many of whom are active or retired law enforcement agents with plenty of experience. You see, the NRA does more than conduct studies. The government conducts studies with our tax money and accomplishes very little. The NRA does constructive things like teaching firearms safety to adults and children, and teaching people how to use firearms to avoid becoming victims. The NRA web site has lots more useful information if you need to fill in some gaps in your firearms knowledge.

Mr. Steketee, I have no doubt that there are successful rehabilitation programs throughout the world. Can you give an example of success stories in a country with a culture similar to our own?

This "Pete, I suspect it is more likely that if you are armed you will end up shot than if you're unarmed" is about the most stupid statement I have seen in quite a long time, given with no basis in fact only designed to inflame. Typical of the leftists in NJ.

Dave, I didn't refer to any NRA studies. There's lots of good info about firearms and firearms training on the NRA web site. Seriously, you should learn a bit more about the subject.
BTW, who taught you to shoot trap? Obamer? Get some real training. Go to the NRA.

Oh, and Dave, is it your position that most people who own firearms lack firearms education? If so, on what data do you base your claim>

No David, when the intruder is armed he leaves ME no choice but to terminate him. Most thugs have illegal guns and have little or no ability to shoot them. Further he is on my turf in unfamilir ground while I know every inch of it. Futher, I go to the range and practice at least weekly and from the distance that is possible in my home I will put two through his heart and two between his eyes faster than he knows what hit him. :) If you decide you want to be an unarmed victim in your own home that is fine, but I train for such and choose to be able to protect myself and my family.

Try and rob me and I will shoot first and ask questions later. You anti-gun fools are just that, fools. See how fast you would change your tune if you got robbed. The first words out of your hypocritical mouths wuold be, if I only had a gun.

Yea what those anti-gun people don't get is the police have no obligation to protect you. There job is to come draw a chalk circle around your body after the bad guy kills you and then maybe try to track him down. Think about what you will do when a bad guy breaks in your house and you are upstairs in bed. You call 911 and then what? Under the best of cases what does it take them to get there - perhaps five minutes. What are you going to do for those five minutes? If you live through it you will change your mind and get a gun, but you will probably be a statistic.

I hate to say this, but the only way our police dept. make a crime scene in five minutes is if the robbery was at a dunkin donuts, the Parsippany deli or one of the fire depts back lots they congregate at "talkin" about fighting crime. But once they do arrive theywill make darn sure to make amajor production out of it.

I disagree with this program because the only people who will be disarmed are those who either are very responsible or unaware of their weapons actual value. And to those who say that this program is very successful in the disarming of irresponsible citizens, I disagree because they are simply unaware of the value of their weapon. If someone is willing to drop their weapon for a few hundred bucks, don't you think they would be more than willing to sell it to a RESPONSIBLE private collector for a few thousand bucks? All this program does is take advantage of the people who simply do not understand firearms. No criminal would ever turn in a firearm for, at most, $250.00.

Well I was not trying to say anything bad about the police, I think they are just like any other people - there are good ones and bad ones. That was not the point. The point was they cannot be everywhere and when you call they may not be close and until they can get there you are on your own. I would rather have a gun to protect myself than crouch in the corner in fear.

And where does the money come from, confiscated "drug money?" And what about all those fellows standign around in their uniforms, sanitizing some crime guns with that drug money? Are they on the clock? Time and-a-half? The research that gets done back at the station, is that paid for with drug money? These cash-for-clunker programs are nothing more than grandstanding "seen to be seen" political exercises. (Guess what? Guns sitting in grandma's broom closet for the last twenty years aren't involved in crimes out on the street.)

It is amazing how discusions always seem to turn into attack the other person rather than discuss the issues. Sure both sides are impassioned about this. But there is no need to call the other side stupid.

What the gun takers don't seem to get is that guns don't cause violence, guns prevent violence. Countries like the UK that have no guns have much more violent crime than we do. No sane person has a problem with taking guns away from criminals and the mentally ill. To take them away from other citizens is a violation of the constitution - that is the document that makes the country what it is. Be very leary of this grab for your rights. The left does not understand that they should be opposed to this, because the next thing the government will do is take away their rights to free speech and 5th ammendment rights. Yes that is just around the corner. If you don't like guns then don't have one, that is your right - but don't you dare tell me I can't have mine. You would be up in arms if I told you that you had to worship at the church the state tells you, or that you could not speak your mind. Be very careful what you advocate it starts you down a very slippery slope. Further, we all know gun control does not stop crime. Many of the cities such as NYC, Chicago, DC have some of the highest crime rates and also have the tightest gun control laws. The actual answer is less gun control. If people in Chicago had more guns there would be less shootings not more

Fred, Agree with you completely about turning a discussion into an attack and veering away from facts. BTW, I am still waiting for an answer from Mr. Steketee regarding my question from yesterday, "....successful rehabilitation programs throughout the world. Can you give an example of success stories in a country with a culture similar to our own?"

@Selena and anyone that reads her anger. I just read many of her posts. My perception is that she is angry, nasty, evil and a hater, while at the same time accuses others of the same. She also seems to have a hang up about intelligence. Here is a copy and paste of only one of her posts: You hypocrites who scream DIRTBAG drug dealer are probably sipping on your evening cocktail and popping a Xanax to help you calm down after a hard's day work at the office.

So hard is possessive? Its not a hard day's work? Hmmm just wondering about her education now.

And why does she so often think people are watching reality tv? And so many other speculations and false accusations, followed by her own response of her own accusations. Weird to say the least.

And as for personal attacks, yes I did fall to that level. It seems I was making valid points, and the responses from the insomniac were to attack my level of education. So I responded. Oh such fun.

"The people who brought in these guns don't have to worry about their house being robbed by the bad guys, because these guns won't be used for any illegal purpose," he said. OK that being said the person that brought his gun in for cash exchange is now unarmed & defenseless to protect his family for being robbed in the first place so while B.N.C breaks into his home kills his wife & then him B.N.C is going up stairs to Rape & then kill his 12yr old daughter and be on his merry way.

How can this program "buy back" these guns if they didn't sell them to these people in the first place?

Here you ignoramouses, you want to know why these kids are killing people. here it comes....
Eric Harris age 17 (first on Zoloft then Luvox) and Dylan Klebold aged 18 (Colombine school shooting in Littleton, Colorado), killed 12 students and 1 teacher, and wounded 23 others, before killing themselves. Klebold’s medical records have never been made available to the public.
Jeff Weise, age 16, had been prescribed 60 mg/day of Prozac (three times the average starting dose for adults!) when he shot his grandfather, his grandfather’s girlfriend and many fellow students at Red Lake, Minnesota. He then shot himself. 10 dead, 12 wounded.
Cory Baadsgaard, age 16, Wahluke (Washington state) High School, was on Paxil (which caused him to have hallucinations) when he took a rifle to his high school and held 23 classmates hostage. He has no memory of the event.
Chris Fetters, age 13, killed his favorite aunt while taking Prozac.
Christopher Pittman, age 12, murdered both his grandparents while taking Zoloft.
Kip Kinkel, age 15, (on Prozac and Ritalin) shot his parents while they slept then went to school and opened fire killing 2 classmates and injuring 22 shortly after beginning Prozac treatment.
Luke Woodham, age 16 (Prozac) killed his mother and then killed two students, wounding six others.

A boy in Pocatello, ID (Zoloft) in 1998 had a Zoloft-induced seizure that caused an armed stand off at his school.
Michael Carneal (Ritalin), age 14, opened fire on students at a high school prayer meeting in West Paducah, Kentucky. Three teenagers were killed, five others were wounded..
A young man in Huntsville, Alabama (Ritalin) went psychotic chopping up his parents with an ax and also killing one sibling and almost murdering another.
Andrew Golden, age 11, (Ritalin) and Mitchell Johnson, aged 14, (Ritalin) shot 15 people, killing four students, one teacher, and wounding 10 others.
TJ Solomon, age 15, (Ritalin) high school student in Conyers, Georgia opened fire on and wounded six of his class mates.

Rod Mathews, age 14, (Ritalin) beat a classmate to death with a bat.
James Wilson, age 19, (various psychiatric drugs) from Breenwood, South Carolina, took a .22 caliber revolver into an elementary school killing two young girls, and wounding seven other children and two teachers.
Elizabeth Bush, age 13, (Paxil) was responsible for a school shooting in Pennsylvania
Jason Hoffman (Effexor and Celexa) - school shooting in El Cajon, California
Jarred Viktor, age 15, (Paxil), after five days on Paxil he stabbed his grandmother 61 times.

Chris Shanahan, age 15 (Paxil) in Rigby, ID who out of the blue killed a woman.
Jeff Franklin (Prozac and Ritalin), Huntsville, AL, killed his parents as they came home from work using a sledge hammer, hatchet, butcher knife and mechanic's file, then attacked his younger brothers and sister.
Neal Furrow (Prozac) in LA Jewish school shooting reported to have been court-ordered to be on Prozac along with several other medications.
Kevin Rider, age 14, was withdrawing from Prozac when he died from a gunshot wound to his head. Initially it was ruled a suicide, but two years later, the investigation into his death was opened as a possible homicide. The prime suspect, also age 14, had been taking Zoloft and other SSRI antidepressants.
Diane Routhier was prescribed Welbutrin for gallstone problems. Six days later, after suffering many adverse effects of the drug, she shot herself

Billy Willkomm, an accomplished wrestler and a University of Florida student, was prescribed Prozac at the age of 17. His family found him dead of suicide – hanging from a tall ladder at the family's Gulf Shore Boulevard home in July 2002.
Kara Jaye Anne Fuller-Otter, age 12, was on Paxil when she hung herself from a hook in her closet. Kara’s parents said ".... the damn doctor wouldn't take her off it and I asked him to when we went in on the second visit. I told him I thought she was having some sort of reaction to Paxil…”)

Stupid useless idiots you are.

***************
S = Socialists
A = assaulting
F = Freedom
E = Everywhere
***************

@ I Plead the Second
Congratulations. Finally a post / series of posts that make sense.
The truth is always in the basic elements, not the politics.
We can take every issue and find the truth the same as you did, but as a society, we don't. Thanks for posting.

Now here is a great video of what the nanny state might do to us if we are not very careful.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=34a_1317870586

What a WASTE of money. Lets get old, barely working weapons that will hurt no one. Embarrassing.

Can we get rid of Barberio too. Cant stand his asskissing of Bloomberg.

Prosecutor Fredric M. Knapp. You should know better. These guns you bought would have never been used in committing crimes. You just wasted more tax payer money with these feel good measures. Shame on you, your family should be ashamed of you too. This is a time of great economic hardship on the tax payer and you are wasting this kind of money. I am sure the cost of the program was a hidden expense that you want to keep secret from the tax payer.

why don't you start a ritilian, prozac, and paxil buy back program, you sutipd ufcking ejrks