PETERSBURG, Va. -- In a stand against gun violence that has plagued Petersburg for years, residents and community leaders united for a gun buyback event Saturday.
The gun buyback at Gillfield Baptist Church on Perry Street offered $250 for the surrender of an assault weapon and $150 for a handgun or shotgun.
Petersburg Mayor Sam Parham called the event an "overwhelming success."
"Everyone has their doubts as to whether people will turn guns in," Parham said. "We want to bury guns and not people. We don't want to let these guns that's laying around fall into the wrong hands."
Those include "criminals looking for a gun" or children, who might mistake the firearm for a toy, Parham said.
The joint initiative led by two local Baptist churches, Gillfield and Tabernacle, with support from the Community Transformers Foundation, a nonprofit organization that allocated $25,000 for the event.
Donald Barrow of the Community Transformers Foundation emphasized, "We don't have a problem with guns. We understand that people kill, not guns. However, guns in the wrong hands kill people. We want to get them out of those hands; we don't want to take your firearms."
Petersburg Police acknowledge the challenge of persuading criminals to surrender firearms, but they also stress that the initiative isn't aimed at seizing guns from law-abiding citizens.
"It's a constitutional right to bear arms, and we want people to understand we in no way are trying to violate their constitutional rights,” Petersburg Police Chief Travis Christian said.
That said, the chief notes every firearm taken off the streets represents one less potential threat.
"This is a safe way to bring your gun forward, receive a gift card of value, and let us get a gun off the street that could potentially do some harm to a family or loved one or kid," he said.
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