New York has collected more than 10,000 guns statewide since 2019 through buyback programs, Attorney General Letitia James announced Tuesday.
James made the announcement during a buyback event at the Church of Love Faith Center in Rochester.
"That's 10,000 deadly weapons that can no longer fall into the wrong hands or put our communities at risk, and we reach this milestone through completely voluntary means," James said. "Because protecting public safety is not just about enforcing our criminal laws, it's also about preventing harm before it happens."
She spoke from a podium in the church's upper floor, flanked by tables bearing some of the 600 or so guns collected in the city. Those included a variety of rifles, semi-automatic pistols, revolvers, and at least one vintage Crosman pellet gun.
The gun buyback offers a sliding scale of payment for weapons: $100 for revolvers, shotguns and rifles, $250 for semi-automatic handguns, and $600 for "assault rifles."
When asked, James was unable to say what differentiated a regular rifle from an assault rifle, instead referring the question to the Rochester Police Department for clarification. An RPD spokesperson said all determinations on the guns in the buyback were made by staffers for the AG's office.
An assault rifle is defined in New York state law as a semi-automatic rifle with at least one of a number of additional characteristics. Some of the attributes that could make a semi-automatic rifle an assault rifle are a capacity over five rounds, a folding stock, a pistol grip, a secondary hand grip or a bayonet mount.
Mayor Malik Evans said events like the one Tuesday are critical for ensuring safety in the community.
"Someone said to me, 'Oh, all you're going to get is those rusty antique guns,'" Evans said. "Well, ladies and gentlemen, before you do not sit rusty antique guns. Some of the weapons sitting before you are high-powered guns that have the ability to do damage if they fall into the wrong hands."
Though government leaders have long touted gun buybacks as a tool for taking potential crime guns off the streets, the effectiveness of such programs remains in question. A 2021 study from the National Bureau of Economic Research using data from the National Incident Based Reporting system found "no evidence" that gun buybacks reduce gun crime.
Another 2021 study from the Annals of Surgery found gun buybacks offer little to prevent gun crime and are more likely to prevent suicides.
"Evidence suggests that there may be a small, improved impact in suicide prevention in older, white males, but no effect on interpersonal gun violence or homicides," the study concluded.
Brandon Lewis is the owner of the Firing Pin, a gun shop in Bergen. He said that there might be a version of buybacks that could be effective, but he doesn't think the current model is addressing crime guns.
"If you look at what is turned it, it's mostly old long guns that are generally worthless and statistically never used in crimes anyways,” Lewis said. “Every now and then a historically relevant firearm that could be valuable is brought in. Again, something that is almost never used in crimes and which the owner gave away for significantly less than its fair market value."
Lewis argued the money could be better spent on youth safety and training programs, or other, routine buybacks that exist in community programs.
