Federal money for a gun buy-back program has been eliminated but the popular event will carry on in one eastern Iowa city. Davenport police bought 420 guns for 50-dollars each at last year’s buy-back. Even though the funding’s gone, this year’s edition is still on for September. Jeremy Brigham, a spokesman for Iowans for the Prevention of Gun Violence, says it’s disappointing the Bush Administration chose not to support the program. He says though, they don’t see the buy-backs as a major solution to gun problems.Brigham says the guns collected at buy-backs are usually not in working condition or they belong to people who have young children — they’re not guns that belong to criminals. He says his Iowa City-based group has done a wealth of research on gun violence in the Hawkeye State.Brigham says most of the gun deaths in Iowa aren’t murders, they’re suicides. He says more effort should be focused on regulating the gun industry, not on gun buy-backs.
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