New Thing 345, New Thing Every Day: Help Organize a Gun Exchange Event, Collect 41 Guns

Today was totally nuts, and an incredibly fascinating experience that the vast majority will never experience. Whether you think the event was a worthwhile event or not, I think you would agree that it was an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime day.

Here are 10+ thoughts from today.

1. A misnomer about a gun exchange event is that the primary goal of organizers is for  criminals to turn over their guns. There was probably a little of that today, but the primary purpose is to get unwanted guns away from where they are unsafe (in drawers, closets, etc.). There was an awful lot of that today; it was a huge success.
2. A few of my friends have said, "This kind of event has never gotten a single gun off the streets." They should reconsider that opinion, which is just factually incorrect.
3. To whatever extent you think this might be a complicated event with lots of obstacles, multiply that by maybe 100. 
4. Nobody would sell us event insurance, which kept us from using the Armory downtown for gun collection, as we had planned (and announced). That is one of several reasons it switched from a gun drop-off event to a gun pick-up. Yes, the change led to some hassles, but it worked out really well.
5. Another complication was that many people were incredibly paranoid about going to a central location to turn in a gun. Turning it into a pick-up mostly solved that problem.
6. We were going to be happy -- no, ecstatic -- if we recovered 25 unwanted guns. Recovering 41 was kind of freaky, and we are feeling pretty good about it.
7. Things moved very quickly and a few mistakes were made. Don't judge unless you were actually there.
8. Mistake #1 might be that we accepted two homemade guns. They worked, though, and could have been used to kill someone, so maybe it was not a mistake.
9. We did turn away two homemade guns that were turned in when we had more time to pay attention to exactly what was happening (and, honestly, I just did not know how I should handle it). Now I think we probably should not have turned the guy away. Those guns were absolutely lethal and that guy was a total nutcase.
10. You might end up seeing the total nutcase on TV. He hung around for hours, talking to people, and worked very hard to get an interview. He may have succeeded.
11. This may turn out to be the only time I will ever spend most of the day with a personal, armed security guard in the car with me. Thank you, James Shelby of Shelby's Watch.
12. There was no food for most of us in the car until we were done. Yes, I am often not as smart as I think I am (I did lose a little extra weight, though!).
13. One of the pick-ups I was happiest about was the guy with a shotgun that had been standing up in his closet for years, with little kids running around the house.
14. Mariah Proctor also spent the day with me, and she was super helpful.
15. Cory Crosby was a great partner in making this happen. This was really his deal, and I was glad I could assist him.
16. We can't forget Judge Bob Aulgur and Bill Davis. They played huge roles in making the day work and they are good friends.
17. Turning in the guns to the police department felt bizarre, but they were totally cool, and super happy to get unwanted guns off the streets.