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From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, April 11, at the Doles Community center, officials will be offering hundreds of dollars in gift cards in exchange for firearms, no questions asked.
Mayor Ernest Davis will be joined by Mount Vernon Police Commissioner Terrance Raynor, Deputy Commissioners Richard Burke, Reginald Ward, Gaylord Worrell and Crime Stoppers Chair Derickson Lawrence at the community center to collect the weapons.
“We’ve been working hard to improve the quality of life for residents in Mount Vernon,” Davis said when announcing the initiative. “This gun buyback will hopefully help us get some weapons off our streets.”
Only operational guns can be redeemed, and they will be tested on site. Handguns will merit $200 each, rifles and shotguns will net $100 apiece, while assault rifles are worth $500. High capacity magazines can be returned for $20 each, with a maximum buyback of $500.
“This program can certainly help us in our crime fighting efforts,” Raynor added. “The more guns we get off the streets, the more lives we can possibly save.”
Lawrence noted that part of the Crime Stoppers’ mission was to help local communities create cohesion between the police and the people they are tasked with protecting. He added that the buyback was just part of a much larger mission that the organization is on.
“At a time where we see visible rifts between police and the community in pockets across our nation, on behalf of the Westchester County Crime Stoppers Organization, it is a privilege to attempt to engage the community and police to come together, to work together and to mitigate crime.”
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