Philadelphia City Council hosts 2 gun buyback events
PHILADELPHIA - Philadelphia City Council and anti-violence activists sponsored not one, but two gun buy back events on Saturday.
The events were held from 10am-2pm at the New Hope Outreach Center & Holy Cross Baptist Church.
Between the two locations, a total of 42 guns were collected with a mix between handguns and long guns.
192nd District State Representative Morgan Cephas says events like this, combined with other anti-gun and anti-violence measures, is key to preventing further gun violence in the city.
"It should be all hands on deck. When we have to take different strategies to address this issue. One is to get the guns off the streets and this is an effort to do that but we also have to go a step further and provide adequate education, resources and opportunity for individuals to get out of the lives that their in."
Andre Allen turned in his fathers handguns to simply get them out of his house.
"My father passed and we’re going through the things and in the closet I found them. I don’t believe in guns, I’ve never shot a gun so first thing I wanted to do was get them out this house," said Allen.
Now nearly 650 guns have been turned over to police voluntarily due to buyback programs such as these.
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