Dozens of guns headed for destruction after Wilkinsburg police annual buyback
The socially distanced line around the Wilkinsburg Borough Building was at its longest just before 10 a.m. Saturday, the official start of an annual exchange where unwanted firearms are swapped for Giant Eagle gift cards.
Detective Doug Yu House came outside with an orange milk crate and began filling it with guns. The transactions were swift, with some lasting less than a minute if no one stopped to chat. In the first 20 minutes, he’d already collected that many weapons, some never used, many discovered by relatives while sorting through belongings of loved ones.
But the early rush proved to be the only one. Overall, the Wilkinsburg Police Department collected 40 weapons Saturday — 36 handguns, 3shotguns and a rifle.
“A very down year,” Detective Yu House lamented.
In 2019, the police department took in 120 guns, which he described as an average haul. One year, it was as high as 160.
Ophelia Coleman, the police chief, brought the idea for the gun buyback from her tenure at the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police, although the city hasn’t been doing them lately. A church-sponsored gun buyback event in Homewood earlier this year showed that demand is high for this type of effort: The $5,000 raised to pay people $100 for each surrendered firearm was gone in 45 minutes.
The Wilkinsburg police rate was a $50 Giant Eagle gift card for a pistol and a $25 gift card for a long gun. After years of doing this, Chief Coleman knows it’s not really about the money. Many who come to drop off weapons simply don’t want them in their homes.
“I was going through my mom’s house and these were in the garage,” said William Roman, unloading several weapons. He got spooked about having them around after two kids tried unsuccessfully to break into his mother’s home in Munhall.
One of the guns, Detective Yu House told Mr. Roman, was a rare find and could be worth more thana gift card.
“I don’t care,” Mr. Roman said later, happy with his grocery bonus. “It’s not my wheelhouse.”
John Stanton showed up with six handguns he bought about three decades ago. Each one was engraved with his company’s name — he runs Stanton Industrial Electric Supply, a Wilkinsburg mainstay on
Penn Avenue. Mr. Stanton said he bought the guns to keep in his company’s buildings for protection “when things were not as peaceful.” He pledged the gift cards he received to a future food drive.
Wilkinsburg resident Pat Geary was delighted to finally get rid of a miniature weapon that sprays mace instead of bullets. Her father thought it was a great idea to buy it, she said. She and her mother disagreed.
The Wilkinsburg Police Department accepts all kinds of weapons — one year, it received a grenade, another year a grenade launcher, for example — but it only pays for guns.
While Detective Yu House braved the cold outside in short sleeves, inside the borough building that houses the police department officers checked to make sure the guns were unloaded and recorded their serial numbers and models. The weapons are all headed for destruction, or rather a second life as little metal pellets, Chief Coleman said.
Pastor Pete Smith of Covenant Fellowship Reformed Presbyterian Church handed out doughnuts. His is one of the churches involved in the Wilkinsburg Sanctuary Project for Peace, which co-sponsors the annual gun buyback. It usually donates $2,500 in gift cards.
The Wilkinsburg Police Department had set aside $3,500 in gift cards this year, but was left with $1,600 worth at the end of the day. So it will continue to accept weapons until Christmas, or until the money runs out, Detective Yu House said.
Those who didn’t get a chance to stop by Saturday — anyone, not just Wilkinsburg residents — can bring their unwanted guns to the Wilkinsburg Borough Building between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. on week days.
“No questions asked,” the detective said.