Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown (left) joins Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly and New York State Senator Malcolm A. Smith at One Police Plaza in announcing that 509 weapons had been collected. Photo Courtesy of Queens DA.
At the Gun Buy-Back event, held on Saturday at the Jerusalem Baptist Church in Jamaica, plainclothes officers collected in the course of six hours, a variety of fire arms including an AK 47, 245 revolvers, and 168 semi-automatic pistols, according to the Queens District Attorney’s Office.
In exchange for the illegal or unwanted guns anonymously surrendered, individuals received a $200 bank card, no questions asked. The cards can be used as a debit card or cash and are functional at any ATM.
“Since its inception in 2008 this program is responsible for taking more than 8,000 guns off our city streets, and by all accounts the gun buy-back Saturday in Queens was one of our most successful,” said Police Commissioner Kelly in a press release.
Kelly sponsored the event along with District Attorney Richard Brown and State Senator Malcolm Smith.
Brown applauded the event as one of the recently announced Queens initiatives to combat a spike in gun violence in the southeast portion of the borough.
“The Gun Buy-Back Program was successful in another sense. It represented, I believe, a turning point in community involvement in the fight against illegal weapons. It signaled the beginning of a change in the public’s attitude to the message that carrying guns and committing acts of violence is unacceptable,” Brown said in a statement.
Individuals were allowed to turn in an unlimited number of guns, but were paid for a maximum of three.
Functional shotguns, rifles, BB guns and air pistols were eligible for a $20 bank card.
