A Peoria pastor has organized a gun “buyback” event on Saturday, November 19th at four locations in the city starting at 10a.m. Do-gooder organizers will trade $200 gift cards for any “functional” handguns, rifles or shotguns. They’ll pay twice that and more for other guns they perceive as extra-icky or particularly scary looking.
Come early, because paying twice the going rate of Chicago’s gun “buybacks,” it seems like a sure bet that they’ll run out of those $200 cards quickly.
Folks in Decatur put on a similar event last year, paying $225 for clunker pistols and $100 for long guns. Probably two-thirds of those waiting in a nearly block-long line left very disappointed. The sponsors there ran out of greenbacks within the first hour of what was planned as a four-hour extravaganza.
Pastor Martin Johnson, the Peoria PD’s lead chaplain, has his name on the fliers as a contact person. His church is the New Beginnings Ministries of Peoria.
The fliers appearing in Peoria and on social media tout the sponsors as “taking back the streets by buying your guns.” Uh huh. Sure they are. As a veteran of gun buybacks in multiple cities over the years, I predict they’ll be paying super-premium prices for a lot of single-shot .22s and break-open shotguns brought in by old people.
Then again, Joe Biden’s Build Back Better has brought us a lot of inflation, so maybe that’s what those old clunkers are worth today.
What’s more, this seems like an exceptionally extra-legal event, far more so than the usual “buybacks” where the local PD will turn a blind eye to state and federal firearms laws being ignored or broken by their department “for a good cause.”
At the Peoria event, there’s no mention of police. It only says “armed security will be on site.” The armed security isn’t for participant protection. It’s there to protect their shoebox full of $200 pre-paid debit cards from becoming loot in an armed “change of ownership.”
Please share information about this event with your friends and family living within a couple of hours of Peoria. Let’s help Pastor Johnson have a very successful event buying guns that no self-respecting hoodlum would be caught dead carrying.
If he really wants to make a difference, he should offer a thousand bucks for GLOCK switches. Or maybe $2000 for GLOCKs with switches installed.
*Armed security will be on site
but, but why? gunz are bad.
They’re only bad in your hands. You can’t be trusted because they don’t control you.
That and the fact that I don’t have all the training those armed security guards have. Me hitting the range three or four times a month can’t compare to the tin badge that shows me who has the authority!
Good luck Boch! Haven’t been to Peoria since my brother graduated from Bradley U in 1973. Make some $ for yer kids…
“Pastor Martin Johnson, the Peoria PD’s lead chaplain, has his name on the fliers as a contact person. His church is the New Beginnings Ministries of Peoria.”
the church is a non-profit status. if they pay for guns they are acquiring ‘property with value’ thus profiting. a non profit can’t acquire ‘property of value’ that would no be covered under a non-profit status. guns aquired as property are not covered under a non-profit status for property acquired because its not related to maintaing the church. because they paid for them they gave them value, thus they acquired ‘property of value’ thus profiting by property using a non-profit status which is illegal.
I don’t think non-profit means what you think it means. Non-profits can make investments, buy real estate, sell items for a gain, etc. They just can’t distribute the profits from those activities and must use them for the goals of the organization.
I, on the other hand, can happily go down to Home Depot, put together some pipe rifles and shotguns, and handsomely profit from the money these fools are giving away.
Non-profits can make investments, buy real estate, sell items for a gain, etc. IF that would have been covered under the non profit laws as supporting the non profit. buying guns don’t do that.
You can’t win that argument. Taking weapons off the street furthers the church’s goals toward peace and non-violence and turning the other cheek and forgiving enemies and all that shitzls. Your arguments may very well make sense in your own head, but you’ll get nowhere in court, or even in a debate.
Now, if you’re really interested in catching them up in legal mistakes, you should hang around the buyback operation. If you can catch the pastor or someone appropriating a nice weapon for his own use, some prosecuting attorney would love to jump on it.
Even better, would be catching the church reselling those weapons on the black market.
It’s not necessarily illegal federally. State/local may differ, and firearms laws may apply. Look up UBIT, or Unrelated Business Income Tax. Plus, it applies only if there’s income. If that pastor tries to sell them out the back door, then UBIT may kick in if our rich Uncle IRiS gets wind of it and decides to grab a piece of the action. If they bust them with a hammer and use them as fill under a new sidewalk, well, might be poor concrete but no tax violation. If they try to sell the scrap, well, that may trigger UBIT. Their official mission statement comes into play, as well as board resolutions, historical ministry efforts, etc.
It’s been a while since I read Hammar, and I’m not an attorney or tax pro, so here’s the definitive reference:
https://www.amazon.com/2022-Church-Clergy-Tax-Guide/dp/1614073007
How are they gonna know if the gun is functional unless they load it up and shoot it? Do they have an approved range on site to do this at or are they just gonna “spray and pray”?
Has any of the do gooders handling money and firearms paid for and passed a NCIC? Where’s ATF with their tape measures making sure no firearm exceeds barrel and stock parameters? Are the guns acquired going to be checked for being stolen, etc? No, no and hell no.
Extra money for g-g-g-g-ghost gunz huh?
I wonder if somebody on the planning committee recently bought a 3D printer is looking to cash in.
Does my cheap rifle double in value if I scratch off the serial number?
Seems like it does! No questions asked!
So how does anyone know what actually happens to the guns that are turned in?
Maybe they just get donated to local gangs and drug dealers.
Or resold for a huge profit.
Not like they use a chop saw and cut them up in front of the seller.
they are donated to dis-advantaged yout who can’t afford a gun.
😃
I guess there must be a lot if scientific evidence that gun re-purchase programs, such as this one, reduce violent crime.
John, you need some ghost guns? I have maker friends spooled up and ready to go.
that is shotgun deer seaso . Maybe I’ll get a deer and be able to show up.
“pastor” Johnson? More accurately referred to as “Hireling Johnson” He is NOT out for the good of the “sheep”.
These are private actors planning to engage in the purchase of firearns WITHOUT going through background checks, WHERE are BATF when they are needed? If I were to set up a table, or open the back of my van, in a mall parking lot and commence buying guns in exchange for “something of value” (such as gift cards of set dollar value) I’d get hauled off by Peoria’s Finest and given a room in their luxurious GreyBar Hotel.
How smart is that?? Damn Pastor is going to have his pickings of some goodies. Hopefully some nitwit old wetawd will bring in an “unwanted” Colt Python or some other valuable piece like a incredible Colt SAA .45
Hmmm, I wonder how I could “dress up” a couple of $100 Heritage Rough riders with 3-D printed add-ons to resemble Ghost Gunz for the buyback? Black arm braces, black thingies that hang down (or stick up), faux “cans” press fit on the muzzles, accessory grips that accommodate hi-capacity printed magazines…so many ideas to earn Christmas $$.
I think you could just obliterate the serial number and it will qualify as a “Ghost Gun” if memory serves me correctly. I believe that’s one of the BATFE’s criteria for “Ghost Guns”: no serial number. That being the case, my kid’s gun collection of old Stevens, Savage, Hamilton, (etc) .22s and shotguns contains many “Ghost Guns” as quite a number never came with a serial number in the first place…
So the church there has a FFL or someone there has at least an Illinois FOIC? What about NFA items?
im sure they don’t have a license,, if they accept or buy an NFA item its an automatic felony for the first person to touch it or give a gift card for it.
Wow wish I lived in Peroria, I’d rob a bunch of people that
Gift cards huh, so they’ve caught on to the bring three broken gunms in and then go buy one that works.
Where are these gift cards honored, Cleopatra’s Poisonous Pastrami, or what?
Buy Back? I’ve never figured that one out either.
Buy Back?
Just because the system gives us the permission to exercise a constitutional right doesn’t mean they get to buy it back.
I wish a police department or church would ” Buy Back” my car. It’s a killing machine too.
the scrap metal yard will give you 10 bux per 100 lbs (or less) for your car. BTDT
Who in their right mind would sell a functional firearm for only $200 bucks? I don’t care what the market price on an “old clunker” might be, a functional gun is infinitely more valuable than a stupid gift card for $200. This is especially true for any old guns that have resides in grandpa’s attic so that they can not be traced to you.
While it would not be worth the trouble to rob these imbeciles of their gift cards, the opportunity to acquire a slew of firearms without going through a background check or registration would be extremely tempting. It might even be amusing to educate the security guards as well as the participants who no doubt votes for Biden about the range advantage of rifles and shotguns loaded with harmless buckshot over the guard’s pistols.
you could take that 200 and get a nib cheap shotgun. Or get 200 in ammo.
Do they have a FFL? If they don’t have a FFL, and they’re not law enforcement, they’re in violation of Illinois and federal law to be handing out money for guns.
If Mr. Boch could find one state trooper who cares about the law, they could put this POStor away for good.
It would be interesting to see how many of the criminals turn in their guns!
Well…if they have stolen enough guns to be able to sell off a few and still have plenty, they might. But their brothers in crime would pay more than the gun buy back folks……
When we see Billy Bob, Tyrone, and Paco hand over their Glocks and AK’s I will support these foolish buy off programs.
You can bet several times the money spent on these programs the punks and thugs who are the actual threats in the area will not turn over their weapons. Several months ago, there was a buy off done here in Al. I happened to be in a local pawn shop buying some ammo when it came up on the mid day news praising the program. The young lady behind the counter said she would happily pay the same amount in cash for anything brought in. Said because of the shortages she could double her money within a week.
I don’t see anything in the Great Commission about spending tithe money on gun buybacks. The church needs to do it’s job, not this.
I’m sure they’ll have multiple FFLs on location to handle the rush of transfers they are expecting. Oh, never mind, I see now, “No ID Required”!!! Oh, and I’m sure the “Armed Security” is there to check the Illinois Firearms ID of all people bringing in Firearms
Rules for thee, Not for me.
It’s sad that fake churches attempt to lure people into giving up their rights, their ploy is to only go after law abiding citizens, and not the true issue and that being criminals.
Why do they continue to use the term buy-back when they are not FFL dealers that sold these guns originally, or family members that handed these guns down to the next generation, and the only people using these Glock switches are gang members.
I ask the question, why the politics attempting to use God?
Time to fire up the 3d printer
So…who is going to be the FFL at the event to do the FFL/ATF paper work on the changing of ownership on those handguns, fully auto long guns/machine guns that people bring in?…or do the law enforcement officers running the “gun buy backs” get special exemption from ATF laws?
Seems like it’d be illegal to not do the ATF paperwork….?
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