Clinton Touts Gun Buyback Program in D.C.

President Clinton threw his support Friday behind a gun buyback program in the District of Columbia, pushing aside criticisms that the programs are ineffective because they draw only old, cheap guns from people desperate for money.

The president went to the Metropolitan Police Department’s training facility on the south side of town to promote another city gun buyback scheduled for June 23. Mayor Anthony A. Williams said the city would devote $250,000 to the gun purchases, and Clinton added $100,000 from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.

With that money, Clinton said, officers may be able to get 7,000 guns off the streets of the district, where gun possession is illegal. A gun buyback last summer brought in 3,000 weapons at roughly $100 each, among them .22-caliber “Saturday night specials,” sawed-off shotguns and 9-millimeter semiautomatics.

“We have no excuse now not to keep doing what works and to do more of it,” Clinton said. “I want America to be the safest big country in the entire world, and you can do it if we give you the tools to do it.”

Clinton called the district’s buybacks--one of the most successful in the country--a bittersweet victory for a police department that has seen several officers slain in recent years and just witnessed an Easter Monday shooting that wounded seven children at the National Zoo.

“You are in a successful enterprise, and you ought to tell everybody that,” Clinton said. “Amidst all the tragedy and heartbreak, you should take enormous pride.”

Critics questioned whether federal funds should be used for the program since its effect on the crime rate is not calculable.

“As well-intentioned as these programs are, no one should be disillusioned to think that it really has an impact on crime,” National Rifle Assn. spokesman Bill Powers said.

The Republican National Committee said Clinton should focus on prosecuting criminals who carry guns rather than encouraging law-abiding citizens to give up their weapons.

“Ninety-nine percent of the time, honest Americans who are hurting for money bring in guns that have been sitting in their houses without being used,” spokesman Chris Paulitz said. “The ones who are not bringing in the guns are the criminals. It doesn’t make any sense.”

Williams said the age and type of the guns are not the issue.

“I’m not trying to run an antique gun dealership,” he said. “If we avoid just one death, even an accidental death, then I think it is worth it.”

A few of the weapons gathered in the program last summer were kept “for display purposes” while the rest were test-fired, given ballistics tests and destroyed, Police Chief Charles Ramsey said.

“Never again will those weapons be available for settling an argument, committing a street robbery or seriously injuring or killing one of our children,” Ramsey said. “Never again.”