Joke is on the DPD
147 guns... what a joke!!!! I know a few folks on THR that have more than that in their safes. Dallas is as bad as Austin these days.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/030109dnmetguns.1130ece0.html
Dallasites turn in 147 guns in exchange for grocery cards
04:56 PM CST on Saturday, February 28, 2009
By MATTHEW HAAG / The Dallas Morning News
[email protected]
The city of Dallas’ gun buyback program on Saturday morning yielded 147 guns in exchange for $50 grocery store gift cards, the city announced.
Although many of the guns turned in were generations-old rifles and shotguns, a few of the guns more typically used in crimes — handguns, specifically — were among those collected.
“This shows that people will be behind a positive activity,” said Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway, who spearheaded the event at Reunion Arena. “Some of those guns are ones our officers are up against.”
Throughout the morning, a steady stream of young and old braved the cold temperatures to turn in their guns. Mayor Tom Leppert said he initially expected officers would take in about 20 weapons. But just an hour and a half into the event, 77 guns had been exchanged for $50 Kroger cards.
“It’s more than I thought we were going to get,” Leppert said. “I’m pleasantly surprised.”
Dallas police officers who examined the guns asked nothing of the people turning them in other than to see their driver’s licenses. Officers tagged the guns and inspected them to make sure they were still functioning. After putting the guns through a 20-minute inspection process, officers placed them in bins and gave the gift cards. The guns eventually will be smelted.
Those who came to the buyback had different reasons for participating. Some said their guns had been handed down but were never used. Others said they didn’t want the guns around their children. And some wanted money for groceries.
Gary Reed said he exchanged his guns because of his Christian faith. Reed pulled his SUV into the old arena’s parking lot around 10:30 a.m., and an officer approached him.
“What you got there,” Lt. Gary Tittle asked.
“I got two of them. No, three of them,” Reed responded as he pulled out a shotgun, rifle and pistol from the back seat his SUV’s back seat.
The two men walked into Reunion Arena, and the officer asked why Reed decided to bring the guns in.
“My church has been asking me to do more,” said Reed, 42, who drove 25 minutes to Dallas from Crandall. “These were weapons I got in my younger years, and I’ll leave it at that.”
Reed said he planned to take the $150 worth of gift cards he’d receive and give them away to strangers.
Caraway said that although the guns collected might not have been used in crimes, that wasn’t the point of the buyback. Some of the weapons could have been stolen later and used in crimes, he said. Others might have laid around homes, where children could have played with them.
“Some of these guns are very dangerous,” Caraway said. “It takes only one gun, one shot to destroy a family.”
