By Caitlin Walsh, News Staff
Following through on his word from last fall’s campaign trail, Mayor Martin J. Walsh’s gun buyback program with the Boston Police Department launched last week. The program, called Your Piece for Peace, offers a $200 Visa gift card for those who anonymously drop off their firearm at any one of the drop-off locations throughout the city.
As of Monday, which marked the first week of the program, 136 firearms recovered, mostly pistols, according to the Boston Globe. Sergeant Michael McCarthy told the Globe that the exchanges had been made in almost every neighborhood in the city by a variety of ages.
The rules of the program lay out that each firearm turned in is run through a ballistics program to test whether it matches any evidence from any crime scene. According to the same article, McCarthy noted that about a third of the firearms turned in so far have been tested, and none have been matched to any crime scenes. Other rules of the program include that the guns must be unloaded, placed in a plastic bag and then put into another container and if you also deliver ammunition, it must be delivered in a separate clear bag.
The idea of a gun buyback program is nothing new to the city. Buyback programs happened during the mid 1990s, and former Mayor Thomas M. Menino restarted them again in the mid 2000s. Back then, similar incentives were offered–Menino offered $100 Target gift cards in exchange for firearms. according to an ealier Boston Globe article.
The gift cards being offered by Walsh now are funded by a budget of $125,000 coming from a combination of the Boston Police Athletic League, the City of Boston Credit Union and the Boston Police Runners Club, according to the Boston Globe.
The Your Piece for Peace program has 23 locations spread all throughout the city, four of which are located in Dorchester’s neighborhoods, two in East Boston, two in South Boston and the rest sprinkled throughout.
“We’re here to do much more than launch a single program,” Walsh said in a March 24 press release. “This is the first step in a long-term, citywide mission to prevent violence. The people standing with me today have come together to support each other and better their communities. We are calling on everyone in the City of Boston to join us as we move forward, because everyone has a responsibility in this mission.”
Walsh has announced more plans than just the start of the gun buyback program, noting that the program is just one of multiple steps. He also announced, in the same press release, an upcoming regional summit on gun trafficking and a renewed focus on funding for Boston’s Summer Jobs program.
Photo courtesy David Parsons, Creative Commons.
