By Tandy Lau, published May 30, 2024
Councilmembers Carlina Rivera and Rafael Salamanca Jr. reintroduced a pair of bills that would mandate NYPD-hosted gun buyback events at least once a month and ratchet up outreach to New Yorkers on how to properly surrender their firearms without the fear of criminal charges.
Such programs allow anyone to turn in guns in exchange for cash or gift cards anonymously. The collected weapons are subsequently melted down and destroyed.
While the NYPD’s Cash for Guns program allows New Yorkers to similarly surrender guns to any precinct for $200, buybacks provide a centralized location and limit interaction with law enforcement that could otherwise dissuade someone from bringing in a weapon. Non-police groups like clergy and nonprofits typically facilitate the events, with officers usually in the background to collect and transport the guns.
The legislation would also schedule the monthly buybacks to rotate borough-by-borough, allowing more neighborhoods to turn in guns. Transporting firearms is a particular concern in New York City, given the sizable number of families without a car that take public transit. In fact, even legal firearms are now banned in subway stations following the 2022 Bruen Supreme Court decision that struck down a century-old state gun licensing law.
“We’re really trying to gear this program towards parents and young people specifically,” said Rivera over the phone. “We want to make sure that they know this is going to be as close to [them] as possible. We don’t want anyone not participating for fear of consequences before they even get to the location itself.
“And we want people to know that this is a space where they can actually turn in the gun without fear of law enforcement and the incentive is granted immediately to get the guns off the street.”
Currently, most gun buybacks are held periodically by law enforcement and prosecutors. Rivera points to the annual Manhattan District Attorney’s Office buyback, which will be held on June 22 at Holyrood Episcopal Church in Washington Heights.
The bill introduced by Salamanca would establish the monthly police-run buybacks. The NYPD would decide the compensation amount per weapon. Law enforcement, current or former, would not receive any payouts for turning in a gun.
Rivera’s bill would have the NYPD run a public awareness campaign “to inform the public about each gun buy-back program event held by the department.” The citywide outreach would target neighborhoods most impacted by gun violence. Information provided includes buyback locations and dates, partnering organizations and rules explaining “that a person who surrenders a gun or parts thereof shall not be subject to criminal or civil penalties for unlawful possession of such gun or parts thereof surrendered.”