Gun buyback event gains momentum, but not all cities join
Owners will get paid to hand in firearms; no questions asked
Foster City doesn’t think it has a problem with firearms. At its Tuesday night city council meeting, council members rejected contributing money to the San Mateo Gun Buy Back program set for May 5.
At the meeting, Councilman Herb Perez pressed the Foster City Police Chief Joe Pierucci on how many calls the police department receives about gun violence. Saying he didn’t have any statistics at his fingertips, the chief summarized it only as “not a large number.”
Ultimately, the council rejected a one-time contribution of $5,000 to the buyback event.
“We were disappointed by Foster City’s decision,” said Nilu Jenks of the adhoc group Citizens for a San Mateo County Gun Buyback. “But at least they considered it, neither San Bruno or Pacifica would even put it on a council agenda.”
But that’s not the sentiment elsewhere in the county. This week, Burlingame gave $5,000, Portola Valley gave $10,000 and Menlo Park postponed its decision to next week.
In March, $5,000 was pledged from Redwood City, San Mateo and Belmont. Woodside City Council pledged $10,000 and challenged local students to raise an additional $5,000 that they would match. They did, bringing Woodside’s contribution to $20,000. But it was the San Carlos City Council that is sending the most, offering to match donations up to $50,000. Private donors are also contributing.
Despite not participating in this event, Kevin Woodside, city manager for the city of Pacifica, explained that the city is working with Daly City for its gun buyback event set for May 12.
The San Mateo County event will be its first in four years, The May 5 event was prompted by the Parkland, Florida, school shooting where a disgruntled former student killed 17 people on Feb. 14. The mass shooting, yet another in a long history of horrific crimes instantly became a lighting rod for change across the country.
“We reached out to the sheriff in February right after the shooting,” Jenks said. “And he immediately responded with enthusiasm. He said he’d run the event, but we had to find the funding.”
In 2013 — the last time the county held a gun buy-back event — the response broke the bank. Organizers raised $63,000 from a private donor and pledge to pay gun owners $100 for pistols and rifles and $200 for assault-style weapons. The community response
was so overwhelming — 600 guns were collected in mere hours — that the money ran out and organizers were forced to turn
firearm owners away.
This time around, organizers set the budget at $75,000. So far, they’ve raised $100,000.
“We partnered with (the San Francisco non-profit) GunbyGun to handle the donations and manage the money aspect of the event,” Jenks said. “This freed us up to focus on reaching out to the community.”
San Mateo County Sheriff spokesperson Rosemerry Blankswade explained that, like before, gun owners turning in pistols and rifles will receive $100 cash, while those turning in automatic weapons will receive $200 cash. There will be no questions asked, which means that if you are in possession of a gun whether you own it or not, you can turn it in for cash.
“All guns will be destroyed,” Blankswade said. “So if you have a heritage piece that you think belongs in a museum, reach out to museums before coming to this event.”
Jenks said that if there is any money left over after the event, it would go to either a future gun buybacksor to educations programming.
Blankswade said that the event is first come, first serve and reminded people that these event are typically quite popular.
For more information about the San Mateo event, go to:gunxgun.org/sanmateocounty.
It will take place on May 5 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the dirt lot near 1401 Maple Street in Redwood City. The Daly City event on May 12 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Daly City’s City Hall, 333 90th Street.