New York gun-buyback program sets record

A statewide gun-buyback program took more than 3,000 weapons off New York’s streets Saturday — including a record-setting 300 in Syracuse.

Officials in the upstate city said they netted 751 guns within hours, the most ever for similar buyback programs in any state municipality and among the 3,076 weapons collected during Attorney General Letitia James’ latest initiative.

“We recovered 3,076 guns today, including 185 assault weapons,” James said in a Twitter post. “Every single one of these guns represents a potential tragedy averted.

“Thank you to all our partners in law enforcement and government for helping us get these guns off our streets and out of our homes,” she wrote in another tweet. “We’ll continue to do everything we can to protect New Yorkers from gun violence.”

In Syracuse, authorities said 36 of the guns collected were assault weapons, with one city resident collecting $5,000 for turning in a cache of weapons, WSTM-TV reported.

The buyback program set up shop in nine locations throughout the Empire State, including at Family Life Academy in the Bronx and All Saints Roman Catholic Church in Brooklyn.

There were 90 guns collected at the church alone, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez tweeted.

“There’s a lot of firepower on this table,” Gonzalez said at a press conference at the church Saturday, according to ABC-News. “And each and every one of these guns is a potential life saved and a non-fatal shooting avoided.”

The AG-sponsored program offered $500 for every assault rifle or ghost gun, $150 for each handgun, $75 for rifles or shotguns and $25 for every antique, replica or homemade gun, including 3-D printed guns.

The initiative came just days after Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh denounced the number of guns in his city, saying the weapons are contributing to a spate of violent crime.

“There are too many damn guns in this country,” Walsh said at a press conference last week, ABC reported. “They’re everywhere.

“And we have too many states that are abdicating their responsibility to ensure that guns are being sold safely,” the mayor said. “And our federal government is abdicating their responsibility to ensure that guns are being handled safely.”