Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - New York Attorney General Letitia James has announced she is hosting the first statewide community gun buyback event this upcoming Saturday, April 29, as she continues her ongoing efforts to protect New Yorkers from gun violence and keeping communities safer.
This one-day statewide initiative will feature nine simultaneous gun buyback events held across the state, at which the Attorney General's Office (OAG) will accept working and non-working, unloaded firearms with no questions asked, in exchange for compensation on site. The OAG provides money in the form of prepaid gift cards when a gun is received and secured by law enforcement officers on site.
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Working in partnership with local law enforcement agencies and leaders, Attorney General James is hosting the gun buybacks at locations in Bronx, Brooklyn, Hauppauge, Watervliet, Kingston, Syracuse, Johnson City, Plattsburgh, and in Niagara Falls at Saint John's African Methodist Episcopal Church.
The gun buyback event in Niagara Falls will take place for three hours from 10 a.m. ET to 1 p.m. ET.
Former Buffalo Police Captain, Jeff Rinaldo - now a partner of Vista Security Group - knows the department did a number of gun buyback events in the city a number of years back. While there have been a number of people taking part in these gun buybacks in the past, he believes the jury is still out on how effective they really are at cutting back on gun violence.
"I think if you target the buyback for specific weapons, whether it's assault rifles or handguns, then the chance of getting weapons like that off the street are a good idea. But the reality is, a lot of times people are handing in replica weapons or handing in long shot guns, things that are not generally used in street crimes," said Rinaldo. "If you target it to a particular weapon or particular types of weapons, I think you can get more bang for your buck, and you avoid paying out money for weapons that are really not driving street crime. But the reality is, criminals are not going to show up and hand in their weapon."
Rinaldo feels it's tough to measure the effectiveness of these gun buybacks without that specific targeting of weapons that are generally used in street crimes.
"You are reducing the ability for these guns to fall in the wrong hands," Rinaldo said. "There is a benefit to that, but again, I highly doubt that a criminal, who's involved in gun violence, is going to show up and hand in his weapon to get a few hundred dollars."
In the past, Rinaldo says there have been people taking part in these events that may not know what to do with a weapon that their significant other may have owned or have come upon. Or they may have been people with a permit and just didn't know what to do with the guns, but didn't want them anymore. He says there is certainly a benefit with getting those weapons out of circulation.
"You're reducing the ability of these guns to be stolen in burglaries, or for innocent people, children to come across a gun at Grandma's house and a tragedy occurs," Rinaldo said.
Rinaldo also says a lot of people are not aware of what they can do to surrender a weapon, and fear they may face some sort of legal trouble with them potentially owning the gun.
"These amnesty programs allow people to safely - no questions asked - surrender the weapon," he said. "Yes, they do get paid to do so, but it allows, to society, to reduce the inventory of weapons that are not wanted, and it prevents them from falling into the wrong hands."
The Attorney General's Office will be providing the following amount for firearms turned in on site at each event:
- $500 per-assault rifle or ghost gun
- $150 per-handgun ($500 will be given for the first handgun turned in per-person)
- $75 per-rifle or shotgun
- $25 per-non-working, replica, antique, homemade, or 3D printed gun
Rinaldo feels the pricing of these gun buyback events does make it attractive for people to take any weapons, drive to wherever the buyback is and hand the weapon.
"I think the pricing is important, but again, I think the focus of these should be the payment is only for street crime-type guns: Assault rifles, handguns, things of that nature," Rinaldo said.
The OAG accepts both working and non-working firearms, and there is no limit on the number of firearms an individual can turn in. The guns must be unloaded and placed in a bag or a box.
As for other ways to deter more gun violence and make communities safer across the state, Rinaldo feels it needs to be in the hands of law enforcement and the judicial system to impose the penalties for being found with illegal guns.
"You cannot have people that are arrested by the police with an Illegal handgun not spend time in jail," he said. "You cannot keep issuing appearance tickets and releasing these people without bail, putting them right back into society to go and commit further acts of violence with a weapon."
To date, Attorney General James has helped remove more than 4,000 guns from New York communities since 2019.