Don’t pity Decatur’s city leaders. They posted an announcement seeking to buy unwanted firearms and magazines from law-abiding residents. They even cited a quote from the gun owner Dr. Martin Luther King to encourage participation in a plan that would leave the law-abiding residents who participated less able to defend their families from violent criminals.
Guns Save Life posted their promotional poster yesterday within minutes of it going live on the Decatur Facebook page. And we encouraged everyone to participate with their “unwanted” guns and mags. Here it is.
And less than 24 hours later, after GSL encouraged gun owners across Illinois to help make the Decatur’s “Community Day of Peace” event a big success, Decatur’s City Fathers have cried uncle. They changed the rules even before the program began.
At noon on Friday, they posted this on their Facebook page:
***** UPDATED INFORMATION *****
Due to an overwhelming number of calls, we are providing additional information to the public to address many of the common questions we have received as well to provide additional information.
This program was set up to work with the community to get illegal guns off the street and keep them out of the hands of criminals and children.
MAGAZINES will NO LONGER be accepted. Too many people have already planned to take advantage of this option.
You put a generous buy order into the marketplace and it was met with overwhelming positive response. We can’t help it if the sponsors aren’t the sharpest blades in the row of butter knives.
Only operable firearms will be accepted. The Chief of Police and/or other event organizers present at the collection site reserve the right to make the final decision on whether or not to accept any firearm, as well the number of firearms accepted per person.
For additional information, you can also all DPD at 217-424-2743 or 217-424-2723.
Decatur Community Day of Peace
April 2, 2021
2pm-6pm
Community Church of God
333 S Martin Luther King Jr. Dr.
We hope that the Chief and/or event organizers treat everyone fairly at the event. Because when Chicago went with the “you’re white, you can leave” and “you’re Hispanic. You gotta go” and “you’re an immigrant, we don’t want your kind here” rejection of people standing in line, it led to some very (negative) publicity for the city.
Also, hopefully the rank and file cops won’t play stupid either. Because one police sergeant in Chicago lost his right to carry a gun as a retired cop for the rest of his life after he found out that intimidation might work against criminals, but law-abiding folks with knowledge and resources push back.
Yes, that guy in the center lifting a tote is (former) Sergeant Samuel Dickerson of Chicago PD. He retired/resigned rather abruptly rather than face the formal complaint filed by GSL’s John Boch. As such, he lost his right to carry a gun as a retired CPD cop for the rest of his life. Here’s a link to how it went down. But first, here’s a tease:
Remember Sgt. Sam Dickerson, the Chicago cop who wouldn’t let Wendy and me turn in a total of eleven guns between us at the June 2 Chicago Gun Buyback? The same cop who ordered me to accompany him outside after he caught me snapping a photo inside the church building where they held their event? The one who banned me from ever participating in a Chicago gun buyback again? You may not remember him – at least by name, but he’s gonna remember me.
Furthermore, we find it sad that these people use the words of a great civil rights icon like Dr. King to pimp their ugly program that may leave participating community members disarmed and helpless against criminal attack.
After all, Dr. King knew that the only thing that stops bigots with evil in their hearts is a good guy with a gun. A gun buyback never stopped a hate crime or a criminal attacker.
Did you know, from The Truth About Guns:
Dr. King knew that the only thing that stops bad bigots with evil in their hearts is a good guy with a gun. On the other hand, gun “buybacks” have never thwarted a violent criminal attack or hate crime. Not even once.
Civil rights legend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Image via syr.edu
Dr. King was a wise and prudent man. He faced a lot of racists and bigots in his home state of Alabama. In 1956 he applied for a carry permit after his house was bombed. The local police chief arbitrarily denied the application, claiming Dr. King didn’t have a need.Welcome to racist gun control “may-issue” laws that gave bigoted local police and sheriffs the right to discriminate under Jim Crow.
From the Huffington Post(!):
One issue on everyone’s mind this Martin Luther King Jr. day was gun control. King’s calls for resolving our differences through peaceful nonviolence are especially poignant after [scumbag’s name redacted] gunned down six people and wounded several others in Tucson. Amid the clamor for new gun laws, its appropriate to remember King’s complicated history with guns.
Most people think King would be the last person to own a gun. Yet in the mid-1950s, as the civil rights movement heated up, King kept firearms for self-protection. In fact, he even applied for a permit to carry a concealed weapon.
A recipient of constant death threats, King had armed supporters take turns guarding his home and family. He had good reason to fear that the Klan in Alabama was targeting him for assassination…
William Worthy, a journalist who covered the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, reported that once, during a visit to King’s parsonage, he went to sit down on an armchair in the living room and, to his surprise, almost sat on a loaded gun. Glenn Smiley, an adviser to King, described King’s home as “an arsenal.”
As I found researching my new book, Gunfight, in 1956, after King’s house was bombed, King applied for a concealed carry permit in Alabama. The local police had discretion to determine who was a suitable person to carry firearms. King, a clergyman whose life was threatened daily, surely met the requirements of the law, but he was rejected nevertheless. At the time, the police used any wiggle room in the law to discriminate against African Americans.
That’s right. The Decatur event is now up at The Truth About Guns for gunowners across the nation to help make sure the Decatur “Peace” celebration (for families) is a roaring success.
Get there early.
The fools and their money will soon be parted. Make sure you get your share. You deserve it.
So they want to get illegal guns off the street per their verbiage…and they are willing to pay for them…isn’t that illegal to buy illegal guns?
Lol. Could be, Michael. I know the Facebook comments are eating them alive.
How about GSL members get together and set up their own buyback booth right next door, $250 for operable guns in good condition? Might Decatur have an issue with that?
No AK’s, no SKS’s, no other rifles?
Can we be there to buy the ammo the police do not buy?
Florida man ‘made fake guns out of wood and machine parts’ and turned them into a city ‘buy back’ program that crashed the program.
Has John been to Florida lately?