Rochester-area residents turned in 548 firearms during a gun buyback event held this past weekend at the Church of Love Faith Center, organized by New York Attorney General Letitia James in partnership with the Rochester Police Department.
The event aimed to reduce gun violence by providing a safe and anonymous way for residents to surrender unwanted firearms in exchange for compensation.
Participants received up to $500 for assault rifles, $250 for handguns and $75 for rifles or shotguns. Non-working and homemade guns were also accepted for $25 each.
Monroe County Clerk Jamie Romeo said the event provided amnesty for those looking to safely dispose of firearms they no longer wanted.
“This is a way where not only if a resident comes across a firearm somewhere, they can dispose of it, but there's oftentimes a loved one who has passed away, and a relative has become in possession of firearms and they're not sure what to do with them," he said. "Or maybe there's a sportsman that has fire or long guns that they're just not using anymore."
The gun buyback collected 32 assault weapons, 306 handguns, and 152 long guns, as part of Attorney General James’ efforts to make communities safer by removing potentially dangerous weapons from circulation. James office said that she has helped remove more than 8,200 guns from New York communities since taking office in 2019.
New York State Senator Jeremy Cooney said the importance of events like this — ones preventing illegal firearms from contributing to local gun violence — cannot be overstated.
“We know a lot of the gun violence that we're seeing in Rochester, but really across the Finger Lakes region, are from guns that came here illegally, whether they came over the border and they were sold illegally, or whether they were stolen from a legal household,” he said.
According to the CDC, firearms have become the leading cause of death for children and teens in the United States, surpassing motor vehicle accidents in recent years.
