Local Gun Buyback Ban Heads to Abbott’s Desk

The Texas Senate early on Wednesday morning passed a bill prohibiting cities and counties from organizing voluntary gun buyback programs, sending the measure to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk to be signed into law.

Under House Bill 3053, cities and counties would be prohibited from sponsoring, organizing or participating in any program that buys or offers to buy guns in order to do any of the following:

• “Remove firearms from circulation;

• “Reduce the number of firearms owned by civilians; or

• “Allow individuals to sell firearms without fear of criminal prosecution.”

HB 3053 also would nullify any existing city or county buyback programs because it prohibits them from enforcing any existing “ordinance, order or other measure.” Several cities in Texas have sponsored gun buyback programs in the past, including San Antonio, Houston and El Paso.

The bill’s author, Brady Republican Rep. Wes Virdell, argued that there is limited evidence that gun buyback programs alone actually reduce gun violence. Banning them actually would keep communities safer, he argued, referencing a 2023 study by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank that advocates for gun deregulation.

That study “found that a small increase in gun crimes occurred during the two months following a firearm buyback program, which would be consistent with criminals understanding that the area is less secure due to the removal of firearms from law-abiding owners,” according to Virdell’s bill analysis.

Cities in the U.S. have conducted gun buyback programs since as early as the 1970s, aiming to voluntarily reduce the number of firearms in circulation, and thus reduce gun deaths, by offering cash, gift cards or other incentives to the public for disposing of weapons. The U.S. has the highest gun ownership rate per capita of any country in the world, with more than 120 guns for every 100 residents.

Local law enforcement agencies conduct most of those programs, collecting guns while also connecting with the community and teaching the public about gun safety. Some programs, though not all, mandate the destruction of any purchased firearms.

Many countries established gun buyback programs in the 1990s in response to mass shootings, and subsequently have recorded fewer decreased gun deaths. In 1996, Australia spent about $230 million to purchase guns in the wake of a mass shooting, eventually collecting an estimated one-fifth of all the firearms in circulation in the country. That program was partnered with a nationwide ban on semi-automatic rifles and pump-action shotguns.   

Studies of the efficacy of buyback programs alone in the U.S. have found mixed results. Analyses of research did not show statistically significant changes to the gun violence rate in either direction after city buyback programs, contrary to the Cato study’s findings.

Many of those studies focused on homicides, but gun suicides make up about two-thirds of gun deaths in the U.S. each year.

Still, even accepting Virdell’s point wouldn’t justify prohibiting cities from spending their own money on buyback programs, San Antonio Democratic Sen. José Menéndez argued on the Senate floor early on Wednesday morning.

“Members, if a city and its residents want to have a gun buyback program, they should be able to host one — just like if a city chooses to have a gun show or to host the [National Rifle Association] convention,” Menéndez said. “We don’t seem to get in their way when it comes to that, but this bill wants to keep a city from making a decision about having a gun … buyback program.”

The final vote on the measure in the Senate was 20-11, the exact split of Republicans and Democrats in the Legislature’s upper chamber. A list of how each lawmaker voted was unavailable at press time Wednesday.