This weekend, there will be hundreds of guns on a single street in Lents. The Ceasefire Oregon Education Foundation, an anti-gun violence group, is hosting its 14th annual Gun Turn-In Day in Lents, where you can hand over your working handgun or other lethal device and receive a $75 gift certificate to Fred Meyer. Last year, the group collected 245 guns.

But this afternoon came a different offer, via the neighborhood listeserve: “We got a better deal. If you have a firearm that looks in good condition, give us a call. We will come by your house to make things more convenient. We will gladly pay you $100 for a large caliber short barreled hand gun. We are also looking for M-1 rifles. Give us a call and we would be happy to talk it over. A couple of bucks more is always a good deal,” writes Wes Wolfe, who is coincidentally the Lents Neighborhood Association vice president.

I called up Wes to ask if he felt like he was undermining the point of the gun turn in, which is to improve safety by getting guns off the streets altogether. Wolfe disagreed, saying people who feel unsafe having a gun in their house should sell it to him, since he’s trained in how to use it properly. “Why destroy a valuable weapon?” he asks, “What a waste.” Wolfe pointed out that destroying unwanted guns isn’t a very environmentally or economically efficient idea, when people who want guns (like him) have to out and buy new ones for $300 or so. He’s specifically looking for a .22 caliber rifle, too, that he plans to let local boy scouts use to earn a rifle shooting merit badge.

“Don’t you have to do a background check to sell someone a gun?” I asked.
Nope, he said, not in Oregon. Someone can just bring a gun to his house and – bam! – $100 easy money. He told me I could compare gun prices on Craigslist.
“You can buy guns on Craigslist?!” I shouted. Indeed you can: old guns, hunting guns, guns promising
“This thing is a beast, you will be feared on the battlefield!”.

Boy scouts with a gun! Cheap gun for sale on Craigslist! Two perfectly terrifying Halloween costumes! Everyone with a gun who wants $100 tonight should email Wes immediately.

Sarah Shay Mirk reported on transportation, sex and gender issues, and politics at the Mercury from 2008-2013. They have gone on to make many things, including countless comics and several books.

6 replies on “Trade Your Guns for Food or Money”

  2. Moreover, Craigslist explicitly forbids the sale of firearms. Fortunately, not only is the right to own self-defense tools set in stone in both the Second Amendment and the Oregon Constitution, there are plenty of gun shops in the Portland area. Many of them will do the background check and transfer for a fee, if they do not have the firearm you are looking for, and an online ad from a website such as Gunbroker does.

    Someone needs to take this journalist to a shooting range, where she can see what real, live guns and gun owners look like. I don’t know if she is new to Oregon or what, but one of the reasons that the place has such a phenomenally low violent crime rate, is the very large amount of legally-owned firearms in the hands of law-abiding citizens.

    My opinion is, the journalist might wish to test her readily apparent bias against this right, by comparing the violent crime rates of Oregon in general, and Portland in specific, with those of large urban areas where firearm ownership is difficult or even impossible for regular people, leaving them at the mercy of criminals. Senator Obama’s turf back in Chicago is a prime example that immediately comes to mind.

    Remember, when seconds count, the Police are only minutes away.

  3. I went to that gun turn-in – but they had run out of gift cards by about 11am!! So I found another local org that does it year-round: http://www.oregunsafety.org. It looks like their gift cards aren’t quite as much, but I doubt I’ll have to stand on a street corner in the rain just to go home empty handed… : )

  6. why is he offering $75-$100 for something that people could easily get three times that price for. this character expects people to devalue their possessions just so he can stockpile weapons for who knows what purpose! don’t fall for it! he’s a scammer and apparently some kind of militant creep.

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