Over 200 Guns Collected At Southfield Gun Buyback Event
Over 200 guns were collected at a gun buyback event in Southfield this weekend. As a new Southfield resident, this is something cool to see. In 2022 the Oakland County Board of Commissioners’ held four events and collected over 350 weapons and handed out over $35,000 in gift cards.
On Friday I got a copy of the Southfield Sun in the mail promoting the event that was taking place on Saturday morning. It happened at St. David’s Episcopal Church on 12 Mile. In conjunction with Southfield Police Department, Oakland County, Mom’s Demand Action – Michigan and No Future Without Today.
[Related: 4 Michigan Cities ranked in the top 20 dangerous in the U.S.]
If you’re not familiar with a gun buyback event, people turn in functional firearms in exchange for various gift cards. This event have cards from Target and Meijer. If you exchanged a long rifle you’d receive a $50 gift card, handguns were $100 and assault rifles were $200.
Following the event, I reached out to State Representative Natalie Price on Facebook to hear about a count on the weapons that were collected on Saturday and here they are:
- 133 handguns
- 87 long guns
- 2 assault rifles
In total 222 guns were collected over the weekend, and $18,050 dollars were given out in exchange. County Commission Vice Chair, Marcia Gershenson told the Southfield Sun that their work on violence started after Sandy Hook. With the shootings at Oxford and Michigan State and those victims of those shootings motivating them to continue doing the work.
The goal of these programs are to get guns out of homes, especially with so many children getting their hands on unsecured, loaded weapons. 222 homes in the Southfield area are now safer, because of this event. Learn more about Mom’s Demand Action, here.
