45.0°,
Mostly Cloudy Another weapon in the fight against crime
Posted
County residents were urged to turn in their weapons in exchange for cash at any of four local churches — located in Hempstead, Uniondale and Freeport — who participated in the buyback program.
The program served all, as the county succeeded in getting many guns off the street while also ensuring that anyone who brought a weapon to the churches would not be questioned and would be issued $200 in cash. The program was so successful that the churches ran out of county-issued money and had to start giving out cash vouchers.
"We were saying cautiously at the time that if we had 100 guns that came in through the gun buyback program, that would be a great success," said County Executive Tom Suozzi. "Much to our astonishment, more than 450 guns came back to us. This was a great success in getting guns off our streets."
Police Commissioner Lawrence Mulvey gave a detailed description of one of the weapons, a Tec-9 handgun, which he said is among the most lethal weapons the police collected, and which has no business on the streets of residential communities.
"[The Tec-9] is not the kind of weapon designed for personal protection, not designed for hunting," said Mulvey. "There is no need for anyone really to own a gun like this. We are much safer going forward than we were just a week ago."
District Attorney Kathleen Rice said the success of the program can be greatly attributed to setting up collection points in residents' own communities, making them feel comfortable in showing up to turn in their weapons. She pledged that Nassau County would be a leader on the issue of gun control.
"There's no doubt in my mind that among all the guns that were turned in on [Dec. 20], there was a future murder weapon in that group," said Rice. "That is a life saved and that's the goal of the county executive, the police commissioner, and my administration."
Comments about this story? MRusso@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 283.
The program served all, as the county succeeded in getting many guns off the street while also ensuring that anyone who brought a weapon to the churches would not be questioned and would be issued $200 in cash. The program was so successful that the churches ran out of county-issued money and had to start giving out cash vouchers.
"We were saying cautiously at the time that if we had 100 guns that came in through the gun buyback program, that would be a great success," said County Executive Tom Suozzi. "Much to our astonishment, more than 450 guns came back to us. This was a great success in getting guns off our streets."
Police Commissioner Lawrence Mulvey gave a detailed description of one of the weapons, a Tec-9 handgun, which he said is among the most lethal weapons the police collected, and which has no business on the streets of residential communities.
"[The Tec-9] is not the kind of weapon designed for personal protection, not designed for hunting," said Mulvey. "There is no need for anyone really to own a gun like this. We are much safer going forward than we were just a week ago."
"There's no doubt in my mind that among all the guns that were turned in on [Dec. 20], there was a future murder weapon in that group," said Rice. "That is a life saved and that's the goal of the county executive, the police commissioner, and my administration."
Comments about this story? MRusso@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 283.
Report an inappropriate comment
Comments