September 30, 2013
Earlier this year we told you about the anonymous donor who worked with us to sponsor a gun buyback program in his home county of Monmouth. That article, available here, described how the Community Foundation of New Jersey matched the donor’s $12,500 grant and allowed the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office to hold buybacks in Rumson and Asbury Park.
Well the results from the buyback are in, and they’re worth sharing. Over the buyback’s two days, $15,000 was spent to purchase 218 guns. Of these, 126 were handguns and five were assault weapons; this is particularly significant given that, according to the Monmouth County Prosecutor, the great majority of criminal activity involving guns involves handguns like those purchased.
The distribution of guns purchased, meanwhile, was 125 in Rumson and 93 in Asbury Park.
So what compelled the anonymous donor to sponsor the buyback in Monmouth County? In his own words, it was both recent shootings and a desire to be distinctly nonpolitical:
“We all have our individual rights in this country. That’s important. But this is above the fray of politics. If we can take unused guns off the streets and that leads to just one person being saved… well that’s just great.”
Click here for NJ.com’s coverage of the Monmouth County buyback.
If you would like to sponsor a gun buyback in your community, give us a call at 973-267-5533. It’s something we’ve done with great success a few times now (400 guns removed from Elizabeth not long ago) and we’d be delighted to show you how it’s done.