In effort to make Baltimore streets safer our sister station 92Q participated in a gun buy back program. With the violent attack on a Connecticut elementary school weighing on many minds, hundreds of people turned in 461 guns to Baltimore police.
The event, which was funded by Klein’s ShopRite supermarkets, had been scheduled long before the attack as a violence prevention initiative. But like White, many people turning out to trade in their guns for a $100 gift card to the stores said the school shooting was their reason for showing up.
The total number of guns collected Saturday compares well with other similar efforts, although many of the weapons turned in around midday appeared to be shotguns and rifles, rarely used to shoot people in Baltimore.
Police said recently that they had recovered 2,000 guns during arrests this year. A city sponsored buyback in 2005 recovered just over 1,700 weapons in a week, and a one-day church-run program in 2010 brought in 42.
