We think the Asheville Police Department does a good job in handling its duties, but we urge it to ditch the grand rhetoric and rethink the validity of its gun buyback programs.

Paying residents to turn in their guns for a cash reward is a popular — dare we say trendy? —  move all over the United States with politicians and law-enforcement officials trying to appease a dumbed-down citizenry that is willingly distracted with Twitter, Facebook and TV’s “Dancing With the Stars.”

Given that times are tough, everything needs to be questioned, including the validity of the APD’s Dec. 11-19 foray into cash-for-guns with “no questions asked,” especially considering the city faces a budget deficit of more than $5 million.

The APD paid $50 for an operational handgun or long gun and $100 for an assault rifle. Money was offered only for fully functional guns, with no black-powder firearms accepted. “The program is aimed at reducing accidental injury, suicide, domestic violence and gunfire in the community,” the APD noted.

Gun buy-backs by police departments are an unconscionable waste of taxpayer money, in our view. And when a city is broke, it’s insane. Even if it did work, the citizens cannot afford such boondoggles.

“To reach a statistical certainty of saving one life, you would have to buy back 75,000 guns,” libertarian talk-show host Neal Boortz said recently. He had hired a statistician, who, for the purposes of the study, defined a statistical certainty as a 95 percent chance of saving one life.

Rather than disarming the citizenry, the APD ought focus on its job and to leave it to others to encourage responsible gun ownership and marksmanship, thereby making criminals increasingly gun-shy.