The City of Trenton, with support from the Office of the Attorney General, is hosting a Gun BuyBack Program on January 25th and 26th with support from the faith-based community. For more information, see the article by Alex Zdan of the Trenton Times.
Trenton gun buyback program draws support from city religious leaders
By Alex Zdan/The Times
on January 11, 2013 at 8:00 AM, updated January 11, 2013 at 8:07 AMTRENTON – Two weekends from now, Mercer County residents will be able to hand in guns for cash at two churches in Trenton, state Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa announced yesterday.
No questions will be asked, and participants can bring up to three guns and be eligible for a maximum of $250 per firearm, all for the purposes of getting guns off the street and out of the hands of potential criminals.
Mercer County’s buyback comes on the heels of an identical program in Camden, the most successful in the history of the Attorney General’s Office with 1,137 guns taken in.
Chiesa said it was important for Trenton to have a similar opportunity, with shootings continuing and the capital city recording the state’s first homicide of 2013 less than an hour after midnight New Year’s Day.
“We’d love to replicate or improve on the success of our Camden buyback with this event,” Chiesa said. “But the fact is that any number of guns we take off the streets will be a win for public safety, and especially for the residents of Trenton and Mercer County.”
On Jan. 25 and 26, Greater Mount Zion AME Church at 42 Pennington Ave., and Pentecostal Assembly of God at 65 N. Clinton Ave. will serve as drop-off points for the weapons. The firearms will be secured by police officers, and rewards handed out.
“We’ll save a soul tomorrow, we’ll save a life today,” said the Rev. J. Stanley Justice of Mount Zion.
Chiesa was direct when asked if a memo by Mayor Tony Mack to Police Director Ralph Rivera Jr. early this week requesting a gun buyback in the city had anything to do with his announcement.
“No,” Chiesa said loudly.
Chiesa said on Tuesday that the Trenton buyback will be the first of several around the state in 2013.
State Sen. Shirley Turner (D-Lawrence) applauded the move, saying unused guns can be stolen and used in crimes, or grabbed during an argument in the heat of passion.
Turner, a sharpshooter who was rated second overall on the Trenton Central High School Rifle Team when she was a student, spoke of some of her struggles trying to close loopholes in gun and ammunition purchases.
“People cling to their guns more tightly than they cling to their Bibles,” she said.
Chiesa countered criticism that the giveback would only get guns from law-abiding citizens by pointing out an AK-47 and five automatic assault rifles were recovered in Camden.
“My point isn’t that we’re going to get 1,137 guns from gang members,” he said. “My point is that, in doing that, I know that I’ve taken firearms that would have been used otherwise for violence out of circulation, and that’s the point of the program.”
The awards are mostly being funded by $100,000 in forfeiture funds collected during Attorney General’s Office investigations: “In other words, the money we’ve seized from gun traffickers, drug dealers and other criminal enterprise to make our streets safer,” Chiesa said.
The Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office also is kicking in $20,000 of its own forfeiture money, Prosecutor Joseph Bocchini said. Awards will be given out on a sliding scale.
“$250 for the top end, that’s as much as we’ll pay,” Chiesa said.
Non-working guns will net $50 each, BB guns $25, he said. Most of the weapons, except for rare, collectible or otherwise valuable pieces, will be melted down, attorney general’s spokesman Paul Loriquet said after the Camden buyback.
As much as Chiesa would like the money used to put some of the state’s laid-off law enforcement officers back to work, he said restrictions on the use of forfeiture money prevent this.
“You say, ‘Why can’t I spend $100 on a police officer?’” Chiesa said. “I can’t. It’s not money I can use to do that.”
Rivera also spoke about the progress being made by the New Jersey State Police as part of their “Trenton Initiative,” an effort with city police, county law enforcement and the Attorney General’s Office that began last month. It entered its third phase last week, he said.
“The troopers are there alongside the Trenton officers,” he said. “They’re there three days a week now.”
“It’s all intelligence-led policing,” Rivera added, “so we’re not just sending officers out there.”
The Star-Ledger contributed to this report.
Contact Alex Zdan at azdan@njtimes.com.
