Man Gets Handed $21k in Gift Cards After Handing Over 'Plastic Junk' to Authorities
New York’s gun buyback program ended up being a rather lucrative event for one creative resident.
A man who would only identify himself as “Kem” borrowed an idea he said he picked up from Twitter.
He read that some people were using 3D printers to make guns just so they could sell them at gun buyback events for large sums of money, according to WKTV-TV in Utica.
Kem said he used a $200 3D printer he got as a Christmas present and set to work manufacturing over 100 gun parts.
“I 3D-printed a bunch of lower receivers and frames for different kinds of firearms,” Kem told WKTV.
The location holding the guy buyback program he attended in August was hosted by the New York State Attorney General’s office and the Utica Police Department.
Though the event was a six-hour drive away, he definitely made it worth his while.
Kem told the station he walked in with a tote bag full of plastic gun parts and was asked by a staff member how many firearms he had.
“And I said, ‘110,’” Kem replied.
Kem said he and the attorney general’s office staff engaged in haggling that lasted for most of the day, according to WKTV.
“And it ended with the guy and a lady from the budget office finally coming around with the 42 gift cards and counting them in front of me,” Kem told WKTV. “$21,000 in $500 gift cards.”
“I’m sure handing over $21,000 in gift cards to some punk kid after getting a bunch of plastic junk was a rousing success,” Kem laughed.
“Gun buybacks are a fantastic way of showing, number one, that your policies don’t work, and, number two, you’re creating perverse demand. You’re causing people to show up to these events, and, they don’t actually reduce crime whatsoever,” he added.
Nevertheless, the attorney general’s office hailed the Aug. 27 event in a news release. The language indicated that a total of 296 firearms were turned in to law enforcement.
As for the condition of firearms turned in, the statement announced, “The office of the Attorney General (OAG) accepts — with no questions asked — working and non-working, unloaded firearms in exchange for compensation on site.”
The statement claimed that as of August 2022, New York Attorney General Letitia James has been able to remove over 3,300 firearms from communities via the gun buyback events since taking office in 2019.
When WKTV asked the attorney general’s office about the incident with Kem’s 110 plastic gun pieces, the office responded with the following statement:
“It’s shameful that this individual exploited a program that has successfully taken thousands of guns off the streets to protect our communities from gun violence. We have partnered with local police throughout the state to recover more than 3,500 guns, and one individual’s greedy behavior won’t tarnish our work to promote public safety. We have adjusted our policies to ensure that no one can exploit this program again for personal gain.”
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