A substantial cache of guns–including three Tec-9s and an AK-47-style assault rifle–will no longer pose a threat on city streets after hundreds were turned in today at two Harlem churches as part of the NYPD’s Cash for Guns Program.
Inspired by a no questions asked policy and $200 bank cards in-exchange for the weapons, people lined-up at Harlem’s St. Mark the Evangelist and Memorial Baptist c hurc hes to give up their guns.
Among the 354 weapons collected were 122 semiautomatics, 185 revolvers, 8 shotguns and 31 BB and zip guns.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly spoke at the National Action Network’s Harlem headquarters and commended the efforts of yesterday’s gun buyback’s orchestrator Reverend Al Sharpton and other civic leaders.
“We see it as our own way of turning swords into ploughshares,” he said
Since 2008 the five borough union between cops and clergy has yielded an anonymous collection of 6,539 guns.