A man turns in a rifle Saturday as part of the city’s annual gun turn-in. This year, 4,050 firearms were turned in – no questions asked.
Chicago police collected a couple thousand more firearms this year, compared to last August’s efforts, during the department’s annual Gun Turn-In program.
Residents turned in 4,050 guns Saturday — no questions asked — at 22 locations, mostly churches, throughout the city. More than 3,300 were handguns, 660 were air guns or replicas and 55 were assault rifles. The event also netted two hand grenades, according to Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis, who as on hand at St. Sabina Catholic Church, one of the turn-in locations.
The Rev. Michael Pfleger of St. Sabina said while his church serves as one of the locations for the annual event, he’s had guns turned over to him at other times throughout the year.
“If someone finds a gun in their home and wants to turn it in, I’ll take it and turn it over to the police. I’ve done it a few times before,” said Pfleger.
The morning of the event, Rev. Jesse Jackson encouraged residents to relinquish their guns. “Increased access to guns and the flow of drugs make our streets unsafe. As we enter into the summer, we must continue to focus on jobs, job training, and supervised recreation for our youth. Inner city unemployment rates are nearly triple the national average,” said Jackson.
Last year, the department netted 1,883 firearms, a significant drop from the 6,800 the program got in 2008 and the 6,705 from the year prior.
“We had great cooperative effort to help get the message out about the event. The community and local businesses wanted to help spread the word. And, the police department utilizing social networking also helped,” said News Affairs Lt. Maureen Biggane, speculating about the increase of guns collected this year.
Gift cards of up to $100 were given for each firearm turned in. An amount for the grenades hasn’t been determined. All weapons will be destroyed, Biggane said.
The annual event has collected nearly 20,000 firearms since the program began in 2005.
Copyright 2010 Chicago Defender.
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