A buyback program that allowed residents in southeast Queens to turn in guns and other weapons at six churches was so successful – with 919 surrendered in a mere six hours – that even Police Commissioner Ray Kelly expressed amazement yesterday.
“When we doubled the [bounty] price, when we linked up with the district attorneys and the clergy, significant things – stunning things, really – happened,” Kelly said during a press conference with Mayor Bloomberg and Queens DA Richard Brown.
The mayor described the results as “pretty incredible.”
Since 2002, anyone has been able to drop off a gun at a police precinct and walk off with $100, no questions asked. In the last seven years, 5,000 weapons came in that way.
But when churches were added to the program on six Saturdays last summer and the reward was doubled, gun owners got religion and delivered 3,551 weapons in six months, including the 919 last Saturday.
“I think, quite frankly, people feel more comfortable going into a church, a house of worship, than a police station,” Kelly said in front of a portion of the weapons cache at the 101st Precinct station house in Far Rockaway.
Officials said they paid out $158,880 on Saturday for 257 revolvers, 222 rifles, 147 shotguns, 137 semiautomatic pistols, 137 pellet and BB guns, 15 sawed-off shotguns and seven assault weapons. The reward for the pellet and BB guns was $20.
The total payout since last year at all the churches totaled $637,572. Major crimes in the first two months of the year are down 14 percent compared to last year.