Many major police departments periodically have programs that encourage citizens to trade in their guns and other firearms for money or gift cards, without any questions being asked, which has been successful in the sense that citizens do actually perform this act, voluntarily. The problem though with this sort of program is that, as might be expected, the guns being returned by these citizens, aren't typically the type of firearms that these citizens want to own or to utilize in the first place, as they often are guns that either don't function, or don't function well, or are considered to be a rather poor imitation of a true stopping weapon. In addition, depending upon the price being offered by a given police department, such a gun return, offers an opportunity for arbitrage, that is to say, if particular adept gun dealers or people that are familiar with firearms, are able to procure or trade on the cheap, guns that will be purchased by the police department in which these guns will be sold for a higher price than it costs them to so purchase, than a rather easy path of profit, has been created and taken advantage of.
The one type of firearm that most definitely will not be turned in on these voluntary community programs to get guns off of the streets is the type of notorious assault weapons that in the hands of criminals are creating the havoc and killing that the police departments are ostensibly trying to prevent. This means, though the thought process might be commendable, basically, such gun buyback programs will not really make the community safer, it will simply provide funds to those turning in guns that really don't want those weapons in the first place, and would rather have cash or gift cards in return. Additionally, the quantity of firearms voluntarily turned in, though it might sound high, such as 1,000 guns, is actually a pathetic little trickle of weapons being taken off the streets, for as bustle.com states: "The Washington Post estimated the number of firearms nationwide at 357 million."
At least, the foregoing is a step in the right direction, and in principle, sounds like a valid idea to enact, in addition, to making the public part of the solution to the sheer quantity of guns in their community. On the other hand, though, most people, would be horrified to know, that guns that are seized in eleven States of the union, are subject to the police department, being able after the adjudication of a given case, or by simply by having possession of those firearms taken from a scene of a crime, are required by the law of their given State to actually sell these seized guns back to the general public. The argument for this being legal is the opportunity for those in the law enforcement departments to actually augment their budgets by the money so collected by the selling of such firearms to the law abiding public through the sales of such. Whether such an amount of money, actually makes a difference to any budget is missing the forest for the trees, for when any police department in a nation that has more than enough firearms in the first place, sells firearms back to the public, they aren't helping the situation, they are making it worse, and if such is actually considered to be a real "service and protection" for the general public, than why not make police departments a conduit for the public sale of firearms within the general course of their service.
When a firearm is seized, and then resold for money by the police department that seized the gun, in which, for whatever reason or whatever circumstances, that gun ends up in the hands of someone that thereby commits another crime, what more need be said.