Suburban Chicago gun dealers also took advantage of the no-questions-asked policy of the 2012 buyback to unload inventory worth less than $100 in exchange for the $100 cards, sources said.

At the time, city officials angrily accused Guns Save Life of abusing a program intended to take guns off the streets of Chicago and reduce violence. But Boch says the group was simply demonstrating the ineffectiveness of the program.

“Tell the mayor we need substance over symbolism,” he said Monday.

Boch is vowing to return to Chicago with another 50 or 60 guns to turn in.

“We will put that money to good use for public awareness efforts on our part,” he said. “We don’t need gun control, we need crime control.”

Anthony Guglielmi, spokesman for the Chicago Police Department, said officers will check to see whether turned-in guns are operable but won’t check the IDs of the people who bring them in.

“If people want to game the system, society is the victim,” he said. “I think those people need to ask themselves, are they part of the solution to reduce violence?”

Anthony:  You’re damn right we’re part of the solution to reduce violence.  We’re advocating for putting violent criminals who shoot at other people in prison for a generation or more, not charge them with Class 4 felonies (1-3 years in prison) after they wound two people in a gang shooting or a misdemeanor when they miss their intended target.

We’re also advocating for putting guns into the hands of good guys in Chicago to help put an end to the “No Snitch” culture, where thugs intimidate the law-abiding.  “Snitches get stitches” needs to be replaces with “thugs get slugs”.

The bottom line is that things need to change for violence in the Windy City to decline.  Taking guns away from the good guys will do nothing but exacerbate existing problems, even if it sounds good.

Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said the city’s buybacks recover assault weapons and other guns that gang members would almost certainly use to shoot people.

BZZT.

It wouldn’t be the first time the Superintendent has played fast and loose with the truth.  Those guns he likes to display aren’t the typical ones turned in – and astute observers have even noticed the evidence tags span many years.

Exhibit #1:  Do these look like guns any self-respecting gang member would use to shoot people?  Most of them wouldn’t shoot period.

The guns I’ve seen – and I’ve seen hundreds they’ve collected – are typically knock-offs or cheap junk and the most common:  .22 rifles and single-shot, break open shotguns.  Think very low end.  Yeah, once in a blue moon there’s something decent, but 99% of it is crap.

“…you just can’t deny taking an assault rifle away from a gang banger is a good idea,” McCarthy said at a news conference Monday with the mayor and clergy at Greater Open Door Baptist Church on the West Side.

Nobody’s going to argue that, Mr. Streetlights.  It’s not gang bangers turning the guns in.  I’ve been up there three times and not once did I see a single shady character within a block of any of the locations I’ve traded rusted junk for those credit cards.