St. Louis Mayor: Give Us Your Guns, We’ll Give You Groceries

St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson (D) is reacting to the rising crime in her city by offering to give people groceries in exchange for their firearms.

She will do this via the kind of buyback program that Democrats in other cities have unsuccessfully implemented around the country.

On December 8, 2017, KSDK reported that St. Louis had witnessed more murders in 2017 than in any year since 1995. On December 11 the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department listed the number of murders, year-to-date, at 197.

The SLMPD shows that 185 of those 197 murders were carried out with firearms. One hundred sixty-two of the victims were black males and 22 were black females. Ten victims were Hispanic. One hundred twenty-seven of the suspects in the killings were black, and one suspect was white.

Victims were predominantly aged 20-29. Victims aged 30-39 made up the second largest group.

According to Newsweek, Mayor Krewson said, “We can’t incarcerate our way out of this situation.” So she plans to offer the citizens of St. Louis grocery cards in exchange for their guns. She also plans to increase funding for recreational activities.

State Rep. Bruce Franks (D-St. Louis) reacted to the Mayor’s plan by saying, “I think she’s trying something she feels is going to be effective, but in reality we just know that they’re not.” He pointed to failures of previous buyback efforts in the city and explained that people will simply bring in antique or non-functioning firearms, give them to the city, and walk away with grocery money.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.