More than 150 guns turned in at Saint Sabina Church gun buy back event
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The Chicago Police Department is using cold hard cash to get guns off the street. CPD held a gun buy back event Saturday afternoon at Saint Sabina Church.
"Here's an opportunity, get some money to turn in a gun, make your house safer," said Father Michael Pfleger.
Father Michael Pfleger said since 2006, more than 30,000 guns have been turned in. By 11:30 Saturday morning, 150 guns were dropped off.
Father Pfleger said doing the right thing means $100 for real firearms and $10 for BB guns or replicas.
"A gun in every scenario makes it more dangerous, potential for escalated violence to include losing a life," said CPD Supt. David Brown.
Donna Carter-Moody was one of many who stood in line to hand over their weapons.
"The gun belonged to my deceased husband, who was retired from the City of Chicago. He was the deputy commissioner for the City of Chicago, but he was also in law enforcement. So he had a lot of guns," she said.
Carter-Moody said she noticed the majority of the people standing in line were senior citizens.
"I really didn't see anyone that was like 30, 40 maybe even 50. That's the ones we need to see out there in lines turning in the gun," she said.
Right across the street from St. Sabina was a block party hosted by a youth activist group called BRAVE, or Bold Resistance Against Violence Everywhere.
Lamiya Dean with the youth BRAVE leaders of St. Sabina says she's tired of seeing her friends and family get hurt from guns.
"That's why we have stuff like this," said Dean. "A lot of us are so used to it and we shouldn't be. So it's not ok. It's not normal, but we are so unfortunately used to it and numb to it and we're trying to break that cycle of the guns and seeing our family and peers on our t-shirt."
This is the first gun turn in of the year, but Father Pfleger said to expect to see two more later this year on the North and West sides.
