House Bill 3053 signed in the state legislature, would ban governments from rewarding people who turn in their guns.
SAN ANTONIO — Gun buyback programs are one signature away from being banned.
House Bill 3053 is headed to Governor Greg Abbott’s desk as some cities and counties, including San Antonio, have held events that reward people in exchange of turning their guns in — but this bill would put a stop to it.
District 53 State Representative Wes Virdell of Kerrville gave two reasons for why he wrote the bill including the programs being a waste of local tax dollars and having little impact on crime, but not everyone agrees.
“We brought 1,500 weapons out of circulation in the City of San Antonio and every one of them was destroyed,” said John Courage, District 9 councilman for the City of San Antonio.
Courage hosted the second annual gun buyback program at the Alamodome in November where people who turned their guns in received an H-E-B gift card.
He says these programs make a difference.
“Those weapons will never be used in the crime. Will never harm anybody. How can we say that that doesn’t have value in our community?” said Courage.
District 26 State Senator Jose Menendez shared similar thoughts.
“If a city and its residents want to have a gun buy back program they should be able to host one just like if a city chooses to have a gun show or host a NRA convention, we don’t seem to get away when it comes to that,” said Menendez.
In a statement, Virdell told KENS 5 that while he does believe local government governs best, sometimes the local government abuses tax payer money and the state government needs to intervene.
He went on to note that guns can still be sold to stores or dropped off at police stations.
If passed, Courage says the ban will limit how the city can promote public safety.
“More weapons are going to get exposed to other people in the public who may have other reasons for using them other than their own safety. The fewer guns we have in our our community that people don’t want, the better off we are,” said Courage.
Governor Abbott has until June 22 to sign or veto the bill. If he does neither, the bill will automatically become law and go into effect September 1.