Bus tickets for guns not enough of an incentive, criminal lawyer says

A criminal lawyer is criticizing Halifax's Fares for Firearms gun amnesty program, saying it's going to take more than bus tickets to get guns out of the hands of criminals.

Reid Rusonik, managing partner at Rusonik, O'Connor, Robbins, Ross, Gorham & Angelini in Toronto, told CBC's Information Morninghe believes gun amnesty programs can be effective, but a certain kind of incentive is required to make them work.

Bus tickets aren't going to cut it, he said."Anything's better than nothing, but it's probably going to take a little more than that."

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Rusonik said the program might be attractive for legal gun owners who don't have any use for them, but it won't work for people who own illegal gunswith the intent of committing a crime.

Those are the guns "you really want to get," he said.

"The risks that they've taken to possess that gun, the costs that they've expended to possess that gun, dwarf the incentive right now," he said. "If you want to get those guns, you're going to have to pay much more."

Cash or lesser sentences

Rusonik suggested a better incentive would be a willingness to negotiate a lesser sentencefor those facing convictions, or cash.

Police spend tens of thousands of dollars to investigate gun crimes each year, he said, "so I'd pony up at the outset to get the illegal gun, and save yourself the money."

Ted Upshaw, public safety advisor with the municipality of Halifax, wrote the proposal for the Fares for Firearms program. He said the offer of 50 bus tickets in exchange for a gun is small, but it's better than nothing.

'That's the best that we came up with'

"Should there be more? Yeah. There could be, there should be more. But, right now, that's the best that we came up with."

Upshaw said he'd be willing to consider different kinds of incentives as the program develops. "I think that we can always have more and offer more. It seems like the more you offer, the more that you can get," he said.

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In the meantime, free bus tickets is one way to alleviate the strain of poverty, he said, which is often cited as a root cause of violent crime.

People can use the tickets to get to work, the grocery store or medical appointments, Upshaw said.

In 2009, a similar program in Halifax allowed residents to trade in a gun for a camera. There were 1,074 firearms and more than 10,000 rounds of ammunition collected.