^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I like the way you think.
But if the requirement for payout is that they be able to take guns from people who are carrying illegally, I don't think your plan would net much. It might eventually dawn on them how bad / stupid a plan they funded, but I doubt you & friends would even get enough $ for dinner, much less new toys.
It's not about the money. It's about the principle. This is a completely ignorant and foolhardy idea that will accomplish nothing but inconvenience for the public.
Unfortunately for those who's hairbrained idea this is, it is so flawed as to be just as much of an inconvenience for THEM, as well.
I'm simply illustrating a way in which this inconvenience can be highlighted and the ignorance of the idea can be focused upon those who introduced the idea in the first place. Let THEM work their asses off. Let THEM spend countless hours and immeasurable manpower responding to pointless "tips". THEY have requested to receive them. THEY are actually paying for them.
Give them what they ask for.
It can't be illegal to call in tips to this hotline. If it was, why would they ask people to do so? They can't expect anyone calling to be well versed in intricacies of search and seizure, reasonable articulate suspicion, probable cause, etc. Why would they ask the public to call, then?
They have ASKED for tips.
They are PAYING for tips.
Give them tips.
Lots of them.
They asked.
Let them arrest, or even hassle, one single person offering ANY quality of tip....
Can you imagine the press? Can you imagine the news story If they give ANY guff to people that actually do what they have ASKED them to do?
"Well, Mrs. Reporter, I was just being a concerned citizen. The department has asked us to keep an eye out for "illegal weapons" and I was just doing my part as a model citizen to help them. Then all those police show up and threaten to arrest me for simply doing my neighborly duty. After all, they asked us citizens to call in. Why would they threaten to arrest me if they wanted people to call in with tips? I'm a little confused. They asked for tips, then threatened to arrest me when I gave them a few. This doesn't seem like an organized police department to me."
How do you think that press would fly?
I'm simply stating that if the authorities want to enact a program that inconveniences the public, while inconveniencing THEM tenfold.....
Give them a hand! Help reveal the hairbrained scheme for the albatross that it is.
(The fact that there's a remote possibility they will PAY YOU to do it is an added bonus!)