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It took less than three hours Saturday, Feb. 23, to collect 355 firearms at a three-city gun buyback event in East Palo Alto, the first private/public buyback of its kind on the Midpeninsula.
With a line of cars, driven by would-be gun sellers, snaking along University Avenue for hours, the buyback would have collected even more if it hadn’t run out of money.
In total, gun owners brought 355 firearms to exchange for $52,000 that had been privately raised by the nonprofit Protect Our Children Bay Area. More than 200 shotguns, 100 handguns and about a dozen assault rifles were turned in, Lt. Zach Perron of the Palo Alto Police Department said during a press conference Saturday afternoon.
When the funds ran out, people who were already in the East Palo Alto City Hall parking lot ready to turn in their weapons were given IOU vouchers, and everyone else lined up was given fliers for the next buyback on March 2, he said.
About 100 individuals donated the $52,000, according to Roger Lee of Palo Alto, who founded the Menlo Park-based Protect Our Children with Palo Altan James Cook.
Elected officials, including East Palo Alto Mayor Ruben Abrica and San Mateo County District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe and Assemblyman Richard Gordon, D-Menlo Park, turned out to support the buyback.
Gordon called the fundraising “outstanding.”
“Private funds were raised, the public sector public police department, law-enforcement agencies were here collecting the guns, overseeing the collection. So it really was a public-private partnership,” he said, referring to the police departments of Menlo Park, Palo Alto and East Palo Alto.
Some officials, including Abrica, also spoke at a rally held earlier in the day in Palo Alto, organized by the group Silicon Valley Community Against Gun Violence to coincide with the buyback.
Group members held signs reading “Protects kids, not guns” and “Too many children are dying.”
Rep. Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo, who was ambushed and shot decades ago while investigating the People’s Temple cult in Jonestown, Guyana, spoke to the crowd at City Hall.
“This is our moment to make history in this country,” Speier said. “It’s time to put some rationality in laws that have been systematically unwoven … by leaders of the NRA (National Rifle Association).”
Palo Alto parent Scott Best talked about his concern after the Newton, Conn., shooting and added that opposition to gun violence is not a liberal or conservative issue.
“There is no blue America; there is no red America. This is the United States of America,” he said.
Activist Mindy Finkelstein, who has been working with the Brady Campaign To Prevent Gun Violence, told the story of how she was shot at 16 years old along with several others at the North Valley Jewish Community Center by a self-proclaimed neo-Nazi.
“Our rights should not go on without regulation,” she said. “(Dianne) Feinstein’s regulation won’t pass without our support.”
Ian Johnstone, whose father died from a blood clot after being shot, talked about opposition from the gun industry and emphasized his belief in the importance of advocating in Washington D.C. and mounting larger buyback programs.
“That’s very exciting,” he said about the money for East Palo Alto’s event running out. “There needs to be more money; there needs to be more events. There’s a lot of work and a lot of energy and attention being focused right now on what’s happening in D.C. We still have a mess we need to clean up, a lot of hazardous weapons around.”
Bonnie Bernstein, a member of Silicon Valley Community Against Gun Violence and a therapist who specializes in trauma, wanted people to see the effects of gun violence on families and communities.
“We are hoping to keep on pressuring politicians to get a vote for Obama,” she said.
Palo Alto resident Alex Beretta found out about the rally online and stopped by after it finished.
“I’m really anti-gun,” he said. “It’s good to see this happen and to see interest. Hopefully, it’ll last.”
Cook, who is a parent of elementary-school-aged children, said he was pleased with how both the buyback and rally turned out and hopes to host more events soon.
“I guess the only thing I’m sad about is that we didn’t raise even more money,” he said. “Now we have to do some thing else. It’s great to have both things happening. We want to be able to have the gun buyback and have it run safely and quietly. But at the same time we want to raise awareness.”
On Friday night, another group, Organizing for Action, held a candlelight vigil in Lytton Plaza in downtown Palo Alto as part of a national “Day of Action to End Gun Violence.”
During that event, group members chanted and left a voicemail for U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner.
I wonder if these gun grabbers also gave out lawn signs to all the sheep that turned in their guns for less than they were worth, reading “This is a Gun Free Home, we will not defend our families under any circumstance” Post this sign in your front yard and see how safe you are. This is a free Nation so they can turn in their guns if they want, but I won’t lift a finger to protect them when they are attacked, raped or robbed. Jackie Speier and Diane Feinstein better keep their filthy hands off the Second Amendment. What part of “Shall Not Infringe” Don’t they understand.
You know Chris, you do more harm to the cause with posts like yours. I happen to agree that buy backs are stupid wastes of time and money, but that’s what I argue. Not the vitriol you have spewed.
Exactly, MV. Truly nasty & vitriolic. Ironic that as we’re commenting, a story about a bald eagle which escaped & flew to Menlo has been posted. It has a permanent disability from a gunshot so likely can’t survive in the wild. What symbolism as the gun control debate rages! More importantly, I hope the eagle survives.
Chris, what part of .. “well regulated militia” … is it that you do not understand?
Jeff K:
don’t go there. What defined a well regulated militia in 1776 isn’t what we think of now. The Supreme Court has already ruled on that.
Isn’t it interesting the majority of guns collected aren’t used in robberies or homocides? How many criminals their ‘gammies’ when then can fetch a better sale price on the street? While great for headlines, it does nothing to repair the ‘culture’ that puts hate or simple indifference in people’s hearts to kill one another.
Law makers want to disarm Americans so they can shove legislation like Obamacare at the people. Let’s see Diane Feinstein rebuke her permit to carry a concealed weapon. An armed society is a polite one, not a police one.
> Law makers want to disarm Americans so they can shove legislation like Obamacare at the people.
And you used your weapons, how exactly thus far, to stop the Affordable Care Act?
Alcoa will soon open a new production plant. Supplies have been so limited – too many good ol’ boy, God-fearing ‘Muricans have been without the appropriate headgear….
The gun buyback trend started as an incentive for people to remove dangerous, unwanted weapons from their homes in an easy manner. Doesn’t anyone remember that this has nothing to do w/the paranoid gun nuts & all to do w/child safety? After all, these buybacks started after a child was accidentally killed w/a discarded gun in their garage. Perhaps the media should remind readers of that so the paranoids can go take their meds & relax. It’s not about you paranouds & your precious cold weapons. If you want them, keep them – & do YOUR part to keep them out of the hands of children & criminals. Guns don’t get stolen from homes w/out them. Kids don’t accidentally shoot each other if there’s no gun lying around.
Hmmm:
you are right, in most cases, the buy back programs were in response to childrens’ deaths due to an unsecure firearm. The problem is that now they are being sold as a way to prevent gun violence. Sorry, that dog won’t hunt. The people perpetrating a great deal of the gun violence (can you say gang bangers) aren’t about to turn in their guns. If the folks behind these buy backs were just honest and say what they’re really about – the safety of children and others in the home – a lot of us would have no objection. I just think they should be honest. These buy backs to zip to prevent gun violence and I object to having smoke blown up skirt.
I don’t think that the reasons are worth that much argument. We get lied to all of the time by people in power – the rich, corporations (because after all, they’re people), politicians. I simply expect it.
Guns kill & the fewer unsecured guns, the better. What’s out of sight is out of mind but not harmless when unsecured. When people don’t care to take care of their weapons, that’s very dangerous & all too common. It’s no excuse for paranoid gun nuts to suggest that survivors of gun violence are worse than the killing criminals. The only good thing is that they reveal their skewed values when they spout despicable words. I live in a town w/gun violence & terrible accidental shootings, so I have an informed opinion. Gun right fanatics aren’t the only ones who get to express their opinions & how many of them live in EPA or admit that they’re part of the problem?
Hmmm:
if we simply accept being lied to we will continue to be lied to and more so because we accept it and don’t demand honesty. I refuse to accept being lied to. If it’s about home safety then that’s what they need to say. And they need to back it up with facts. It should be pretty easy. If they say its about reducing gun violence then they need to back it up, because it’s not, it’s feel good, “we’re doing something about the problem” BS.
Gun violence at home IS the same as home safety. Injuries and deaths by gun are ALL gun violence, intentional or not. I think that the nonprofit folks didn’t lie – they walked their talk. The politicians, etc. lie. I accept the lies because I know what these these type are. They’re stupid if they think we all believe it.
It’s hard to know how many injuries & deaths are prevented from these buybacks – no one can prove a negative. And from what I’ve seen/heard the last few years, the buybacks attract many gun lovers, but not gun nuts, which is a good thing. Seriously, they need to find something more important to whine about.