By Chloe Smarz, OLD BDJ 364.02
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) – Members of the Syracuse community can help remove guns from city streets during this year’s gun buyback program. Residents can drop off a firearm for up to five-hundred dollars in return with no questions or identification needed.
The Office of the Attorney General shared the values of each returned weapon:
- Assault rifle or ghost gun: $500
- Handgun: $500 for first, then $150 each
- Rifle or shotgun: $75
- Non-working, replica, antique, homemade, or 3D-printed gun: $25
Firearms must be unloaded and put in a box, bag, or plastic bag before drop off. There is no limit on the number of firearms you can turn in.
The event is scheduled for Saturday, April 29 from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at St. Lucy’s Food Pantry, on 425 Gifford Street in Syracuse.
Syracuse Lieutenant Matthew Malinowski says the event’s ultimate goal is not charging people with a crime, but making the city safer.
“Most people don’t trust that you can purely turn in a gun and not have your name taken down or get in trouble but it is a true amnesty program, there is no information taken,’ Malinowski says.
Once the guns are turned in, the police department makes sure they aren’t involved in past offenses.
“Some of them we will run the numbers to see if they were stolen then we can try to get in touch with the original owner to see if they want the gun back but ultimately they get destroyed. Now if we found out that a gun was somehow used in a crime it may lead to being turned in as evidence but whoever turns in the gun themselves as they cannot be charged with any sort of a crime. So we don’t want to deter people from turning in their weapons,” Malinowski says.
After 12 years since the previous one in 2009, the gun buyback program returned to Syracuse in 2021. Last year, Syracuse topped all of New York State cities in the number of guns recovered from gun buyback programs. According to the most recent data from 2022, New York Attorney General Letitia James has taken nearly 3000 firearms out of communities since 2018. But Malinowski emphasizes that the program isn’t flawless.
“We still do have some challenges with the illegal firearms and ghost guns are not necessarily getting turned in, we understand that. This year we are trying to work with our say youth community leaders, pastors trying to get them the information and really try to get those guns off the streets,” Malinowski says.
He hopes that the 500 dollar turnover for handing in a gun will outweigh any doubts for residents.