Crime & Safety

Middlesex County Residents Surrender 1,800 Firearms to Gun Buyback

The gun buyback program in New Jersey has collected a total of 16,000 firearms to date.

By Jennifer Bradshaw

About 1,800 guns are no longer on the streets and in the homes of Middlesex County residents.

That was the meat of a press conference on Wednesday morning to announce the results of the Middlesex County operation of the state's Gun Amnesty Program.

This past weekend, 610 firearms were turned in at Sacred Heart Parish in New Brunswick; 874 firearms were turned in at Sayre Woods Bible Church in Old Bridge; and 357 firearms were surrendered at Cathedral International in Perth Amboy, said Acting Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew C. Carey, who called the selection "an incredible amount of weapons."

Tables overflowed with handguns, semi-automatic weapons and hundreds of rifles and shotguns at the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Officer Training Center in Edison, while Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office Investigator James Napp showed off some of the more unusual weapons turned in. 

170 of the weapons collected were illegal, due to modifications or large magazine capacity. 800 of them were handguns, according to Hoffman. 

"Thanks to the strong desire of people here and throughout the state to make their homes and neighborhoods safer, there are nearly 16,000 fewer deadly firearms circulating out there – nearly 16,000 fewer ways to maim or kill someone," Hoffman said. 

Among the surrendered weapons were assault rifles, homemade shotguns, TEC-9 and TEC-22 semi-automatic handguns, military-grade AR-15 rifles and a Thompson 45 Rifle, which is an "extremely rare" weapon, Napp said. 

Over two days, residents could bring their firearms to the drop-off spots to surrender them without any questions or stipulations and receive as much as $250 each up to three guns. 

A total of 1,800 weapons were turned in, and $266,000 was paid out, Hoffman said. The money paid for the guns came from criminal forfeiture funds that were seized in other criminal investigations, and not from tax dollars, Hoffman said. 

The gun amnesty program has been held 10 times thus far in counties around New Jersey and in total has brought in 16,000 weapons, Hoffman said. 

Buybacks are not the only way to reduce gun violence in New Jersey, Hoffman said, but they are a key part of the overall plan. 

Based on the reaction the buybacks have been getting around the state, the "majority" of New Jersey residents support the buybacks, he said. 

Nearly all of the weapons collected are to be destroyed, with the exception of guns with potential historical value, such as the Thompson 45 Rifle, Hoffman said.

Those weapons are offered to museums run by the state or the FBI, he said. 


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