President Joe Biden wants to reduce gun violence and gun deaths in the country. There is a problem, though: Democratic and Republican solutions on the issue vary, and many of the measures that Biden supports might not get 60 votes in the Senate.
Biden recently laid out some of his gun control priorities to try to reduce crime in urban areas. They included expanded background checks, an assault weapons ban, and a ban on high-capacity magazines, among other provisions.
One can argue the merits of such proposals, but it’s hard to imagine 10 Republican senators or any number close to that supporting an assault weapons ban in 2021. After all, there are no longer Republican senators from states such as Vermont and Delaware.
If Biden is serious about wanting to reduce gun deaths in the country, however, there is a reasonable proposal he supports that should garner support from people on both sides of the aisle: voluntary gun buybacks.
This isn’t the mandatory gun buyback idea from former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, a Texas Democrat, that resulted in him getting a ton of downvotes on Reddit. That’s a horrible idea that many Democrats don’t support either.
Rather, the federal government could create a program that provides grants and resources for states, cities, and towns that want to hold voluntary gun buyback programs. Costs for such a program could be low since gun buybacks typically involve exchanging a gun for a gift card, and businesses can donate gift cards.
Voluntary gun buyback programs are something that 76% support, a 2019 poll from the Hill found. Just 12% opposed the idea.
The reason why this could help reduce gun deaths in the country is that much of the gun problem in the United States is a suicide problem. About two-thirds of gun deaths are suicides. Guns, sadly, are also the most effective suicide method.
Thankfully, most suicide attempts are unsuccessful. But about 85% of suicide attempts with a gun are successful, compared to fewer than 3% when someone tries to overdose on pills, according to the Harvard School of Public Health. Meanwhile, 9 out of 10 people who attempt suicide and survive don’t end up committing suicide at a later date, according to Harvard.
Therefore, getting guns out of households with suicidal people could be an effective way to limit gun deaths. Not to mention there are instances in which people die by firearm accidents, domestic homicides, or burglars using someone’s gun against them. After all, living in a house with a gun makes one more likely to die by gun death, according to the Annals of Internal Medicine.
The consensus on voluntary gun buybacks is that they don’t get guns out of the hands of criminals, as the Department of Justice points out. We shouldn’t expect criminals in Chicago and Detroit to stop by these events so they can pick up a Red Lobster gift card, but it could be one small step toward reducing gun violence in the country.
If that’s all Biden can get, he should take it. If it works, that’s great. If not, then the government can discontinue the program.
Tom Joyce (@TomJoyceSports) is a political reporter for the New Boston Post in Massachusetts. He is also a freelance writer who has been published in USA Today, the Boston Globe, Newsday, ESPN, the Detroit Free Press, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Federalist, and a number of other outlets.
