Using the “local control” mantra of the old segregationists, who also wanted to keep basic rights from all people, Tucson City Councilpersons Steve Kozachik and Karen Uhlich are invoking “local control’ to push their agenda to restrict a basic Constitutional right to a select few in their call for local gun control.
The Tucson Mayor and Council “are asking the Legislature to return to local control the purview of deciding how we as a community want to address our gun laws,” according to Kozachik in his most recent newsletter. Kozachik acknowledges that his suggestion appeared to the general public to be that he had “advocated burning the Bill of Rights.”
Kozachik uses epithets to describe critics of his suggestion and advises them that they “need to calm down and understand that we’re also E Pluribus Unum (out of many, one) and that all sides deserve a seat in the discussion so a community voice is the result – not just the loudest.” Kozachik then uses the community’s concerns to promote his primarily partisan town-hall-roast event at the Loft on January 7.
Kozachik also wants to “conduct a totally voluntary, no questions asked gun buyback event.” Kozachik reports that he “began an exchange with several of our large corporate partners in the community, unions and non-profits asking if they’d help to fund gift cards that would be given out to people who brought in their guns for trade. I’ve also got calls into some potential sponsoring retail outlets to see about getting matching commitments; that is, we give $15K in cash and they match with $30K in gift cards.”
While Kozachik claims that “in other locales people have been offered from $25 to $50 for handguns and up to $100 for long guns,” he ignores the fact that most of the weapons turned in at other gun buyback events have not been sold back by criminals, but by law abiding people in need of cash for essentials.
Tucson has the 6th highest poverty rate in the country, so the program potentially could be lifesaver for those many hungry and but honest residents.
Kozachik says he has approached the NRA’s Arizona leadership “so I’ll be waiting for the calls while also pursuing the other groups with whom I’ve already started the exchange.”
One former member of the Arizona NRA said of the suggestion, “You can keep my plastic grocery bags if you have to, but don’t even think about going after my gun.” Another Tucson gun enthusiast said that people should support gun buyback programs. He claims that he was able to get rid of two non-working guns and get a $100 gift certificate for each one. He said it was a “great way to get rid of those old guns that are collecting dust.”
Last month, Kozachik warned his fellow Republicans, who were unhappy with his representation, that plastic bags, “would be dead” without him.
Last month the Tucson City Council had wanted to ban plastic grocery bags.
The vast majority of donations made to food banks are delivered in plastic grocery bags. The food banks in Southern Arizona are struggling to keep up with the needs of the community.
One Army combat veteran said, “The City of Tucson should consider a politician buyback program. Citizens could turn in their old, busted-ass, nonworking politicians — no questions asked.” His fellow vet said of the idea, “The politician buyback program should also include a guarantee that the politicians will not be sold or returned to the public domain, but must be melted down for scrap.”
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