Hundreds of guns collected at Southfield gun buyback
(CBS NEWS DETROIT) - "So help me God if you're a kid, and you see a gun, it's irresistible. You're going to go play with it," Bruce Nichols said, who was in one of the hundreds of cars that found their way to St. David's Episcopal Church on Saturday for a gun buyback.
"Who knows how many lives you save by getting those guns out of those houses of places where children can get at them," Nichols added.
The buyback is held with $10,000 in funding from the Oakland County Safer Communities Fund, as appropriated by the county board of commissioners.
"We spent half that money on officers, another half as seed money for funds that we raised. On top of that, the church raised almost another $20,000, so we were able to make sure that everybody who came in line and waited in line was able to get some money for their guns," Chris Yaw, the rector at St. David's said.
He says those who dropped off guns had the chance to earn up to $300 worth of Meijer or Target gift cards, depending on the kind of firearm that was returned.
After collection, some of the guns will go off to ballistics labs to test if they've been used in crimes. After that, they'll go to Michigan State Police to be destroyed, Yaw said.
"We have more and more guns out there. So many that the people who want guns have them, the people who kind of want guns have them, and the people who don't want guns have them. And so that's why we're here because we have hundreds and hundreds of people in our community who just no longer want their gun," Yaw said.
Yaw added that another buyback will take place in the spring of 2024.
He also sais a total of 224 guns were collected on Saturday. Eight came back as stolen, and two of them were assault rifles.
Yaw also said $18,800 in gift cards were given away.