Church hosts gun buyback today in Darby Borough
DARBY BOROUGH » State and local leaders are calling out the gun violence that has plagued their communities without much help to combat it.
The Rev. Gregory Nelson of Mt. Zion A.M.E. Church in Darby was joined Thursday afternoon by state Reps. Joanna McClinton, D-191 of Philadelphia, and Margo Davidson, D-164 of Upper Darby, and pastors from other local congregations to express the sorrow they’ve seen from the violence and the hope they have for safer neighborhoods.
“Gun violence is a problem everywhere, it’s a problem affecting our families,” said McClinton. “If I could want anything for the holiday season for our communit(ies) … it’s peace. We need peace on the streets. Our children, our young people have to learn how valuable their lives are.”
“If we cut our lives short because handguns are too accessible, because of disagreements, it’s not right, it’s wrong.”
Davidson voiced her opinion to not wanting guns to be all over the streets, either.
“I totally reject the premise that an armed society is a polite society … but we’re here today to say we want to get as many guns off the street as possible,” she said. “We definitely don’t want guns to fall into the hands of people who have criminal intent, and we definitely need to make sure we look at our gun safety laws to make sure that we begin to stem the tide of mass murder in this country by assault weapons.”
Davidson also took issue with the U.S. House Bill H.R. 38, known as the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017, which would open up federal gun laws to allow a person to rightful carry a concealed weapon throughout the states in laws that permit them. She said it was important to have an outreach program at a time when the federal government is trying to expand gun rights.
Nelson said he, and his fellow men of the cloth, have seen how gun violence has affected their parishioners who have lost friends and family of all ages to it.
“There’s not a day that goes by that one of the clergy is not involved in a funeral or going to the hospital to visit someone, whether a parishioner, a family member of a parishioner, who’s been shot, (or) gotten into an altercation where guns are used,” said Nelson. “There’s a need all throughout Delaware County, but particularly Darby.
“We’ve seen an increase in gun violence, an increase in gang violence.”
McClinton said no more blood should be spread on the streets.
“I’m a person of faith and I don’t believe that’s God’s will. I don’t believe that’s our will to go outside and get killed by gun violence,” said McClinton.
McClinton is a partner with Darby Borough Police Department and other groups to help with the Mt. Zion A.M.E. Church’s gun buyback program on Saturday. People are asked to surrender their unwanted firearms where Darby police officers will be ready to collect them from noon to 3 p.m. at the church. Fifty dollar gift cards will be awarded for handguns that are turned in.
“We thought we should be proactive instead of reactive,” said Nelson of the gun buyback. “We thought we would try to get out in front of this as many communities have been doing. We felt, in Darby, we needed to do our part to get in front of this challenge and epidemic.
“I, as a pastor, and I’m sure like my colleagues, am tired of burying young men and women, or any age. We have to begin to address it.”