It was announced this week that the cities of Chesapeake and Newport News are both holding gun buyback programs. A gift certificate worth $100 will be given for each functioning handgun turned in.

The goal of the program is to “reduce violent crime and take guns off the streets by encouraging gun owners to voluntarily turn in their weapons.”

Of the people who do turn in their weapons, how many do you suppose will be the ones who would use them for unlawful purposes? That number will be zip, nada, zero and none.

These programs are among the most asinine and ludicrous ever contrived. They are only public relations programs designed to make the anti-gun crowd feel good and to help them disarm law-abiding citizens.

People who have guns that they use for unlawful purposes are not going to give them up for a mere $100. Any good handgun is now worth from $400 to more than $1,000.

The guns that are turned in will come from widows who no longer want the responsibility of keeping their husbands’ weapons at home or from other law-abiding people who no longer want their guns, for whatever reason. The bottom line is that only law-abiding, peaceful citizens will turn in their guns, and no guns will be “removed from the streets.”

These programs are a waste of tax money and are meant to assuage the anti-gun leftist liberals who want to disarm law-abiding citizens.

I agree that something needs to be done in both Chesapeake and Newport News, as well as the other Hampton Roads cities. Hardly a day passes that some unlawful act involving a handgun occurs in our cities, especially in Newport News.

Collecting handguns from law-abiding people is not the answer to preventing or reducing gun violence. The anti-gun crowd should be thankful that law-abiding gun owners are protecting them.