NEW ORLEANS – Dozens of vehicles lined up outdoors a New Orleans church car parking zone this week as residents flocked to trade firearms for online game consoles by way of a city-supported gun buyback initiative meant to enhance public security as Louisiana loosens gun possession legal guidelines.
Leticia Clanton, 50, waited all morning Tuesday for the chance. Whereas she had a allow to hold a hid handgun she had owned for the previous decade, she additionally has eight younger grandchildren working round her dwelling. Clanton selected to swap her weapon for a PlayStation 5 price about $500.
“With all of the grandkids and all of the violence that they obtained occurring, it’s time to get it up off the road,” Clanton stated. As for the PlayStation? “It’s going to be for all of them to share after they come to the home.”
Over the course of two hours, metropolis law enforcement officials obtained and dismantled 32 revolvers, shotguns and semi-automatics, all traded in with no questions requested as lengthy the weapons have been practical. In all, the town collected 94 weapons by way of three buybacks during the last six months, all involving swaps for gaming units.
An area nonprofit, Unchained Realities, organized the exchanges as a part of its Nola Grown gaming program that engages younger folks within the metropolis with gaming. The nonprofit established two facilities for youth to construct abilities and open up pathways to the gaming world, whether or not as a aggressive participant or by way of sport growth, graphic design and coding. A 3rd middle is within the works.
“If my inbox is crammed up with individuals who say they wish to do that, I simply felt a necessity to exit and attempt to increase some more cash,” stated J.D. Carrere, co-director of the gaming program. Tuesday’s occasion was paid for primarily by way of donations from two non-public companies.
Louisiana loosens restrictions on gun possession
Carrere stated the buybacks got here in response to Louisiana’s extra relaxed gun possession restrictions and harsher sentencing for violent crimes.
Shortly after taking workplace in 2024, Republican Gov. Jeff Landry pushed a tough-on-crime agenda by way of the GOP-dominated Legislature. The legal guidelines handed embody mandating 17-year-olds be charged as adults and require anybody convicted of a criminal offense to serve 85% of their sentence earlier than they are often launched.
One other legislation which went into impact in August permits most individuals 18 years or older to hold a concealed weapon without a government permit, a firearms coaching course or getting their fingerprints taken — all earlier authorized necessities.
Landry’s workplace didn’t reply to a request for remark.
New Orleans has traditionally had one of many nation’s highest homicide rates and metropolis officers have usually clashed with the remainder of conservative Louisiana over how to handle violent crime. Nevertheless, murders and non-fatal shootings have decreased considerably previously two years, in response to the New Orleans Police Division.
Do gun buybacks work?
There have been a whole bunch of gun buybacks across the nation, however quantitative research comparable to a 2021 report from the National Bureau of Economic Research haven’t indicated that they do a lot to noticeably scale back violent crime.
Critics say buybacks solely gather a fraction of the weapons on the streets, fail to achieve the folks probably to commit crimes and include a lot of loopholes. Throughout a statewide gun buyback in New York in 2022, a man claimed $21,000 in gift cards by mass-producing 3D printed weapons.
Neighborhood leaders in New Orleans say the PlayStation swap needs to be seen not as a one-off, however as a part of broader group engagement technique that additionally raises consciousness and connects households with city-supported gaming applications for his or her youngsters.
“To easily take a gun away isn’t sufficient,” Carrere stated. “I believe to interchange it with alternative is de facto what we’re doing.”
Carrere stated he considers the gun buyback initiative profitable if it stops even one particular person from utilizing the gun to commit a criminal offense. He factors out it’s seemingly inexpensive handy out PlayStations than imprison somebody for armed theft.
“All of us win as a result of we don’t should cope with one other dying, we don’t should cope with one other household dropping family members both by gunshot or by jail,” Carrere stated. “And we don’t should then pressure the system.”
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Brook is a corps member for The Related Press/Report for America Statehouse Information Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit nationwide service program that locations journalists in native newsrooms to report on undercovered points. Observe Brook on the social platform X: @jack_brook96
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