PHOTO COURTESY OF SOUTH BRUNSWICK POLICE South Brunswick Police Chief Michael Paquette and Patrolman Joseph Boguszewicz stand in front of guns in the department’s evidence room. Area police departments are hoping to add to the collection this weekend with the gun buy-back program.
The first and only time the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office conducted a gun surrender program, it collected more than 1,800 guns at six sites over 10 days in 1994.
"We got everything from the street criminal turning in his Saturday night special, to the guy who bought a gun a long time ago and it’s just been lying around the house, to older people with World War II souvenirs, to the parents who had a gun before they had children but no longer feel safe having the gun around the house," Assistant Prosecutor Cindy Glaser recalled.
The success of that effort has led the county to run the program again. From Friday through Sunday, the prosecutor’s office will staff five locations around the county, paying $60 to those who turn in handguns, $40 for rifles and shotguns, and $100 for assault weapons.
The program, coordinated by Glaser, Deputy Chief Joseph Krisza and Capt. Steve Kaminsky, is designed to make communities safer by reducing the number of dangerous guns that are around. The "most wanted" weapons are handguns, but almost any gun will be accepted.
Glaser said that critics of the program may claim it is a waste of money because the guns turned in are generally not those belonging to criminals. She disagreed with that belief, however, saying she does not see a negative side to the program.
"Anytime you can get a gun off the street, that’s a good thing for law enforcement," Glaser said, noting that even the guns owned by law-abiding citizens can wind up in the wrong hands. Not only can they be stolen and used by a criminal, but they can also wind up causing a tragic accident — such as cases of children taking their parents’ guns and playing "cops and robbers."
"Tragedies do happen with guns owned by good citizens," the prosecutor’s office states in a promotional flier.
South Brunswick Police Chief Michael Paquette agreed.
"If we get one of the guns out there that may be used in a crime, it is a success," Paquette said Monday.
Paquette said that South Brunswick will be one of five locations in the county where the guns can be turned in starting tomorrow.
"We are covering the southern part of the county," Paquette said.
Paquette said that the 1994 drive brought in some guns, "but not hundreds."
One reason an occasional street criminal may turn in a gun too is because there are no questions asked when they drop it off.
"They hand in the gun, they get the cash and they leave," Glaser said, adding that the prosecutor’s office does run a check on the gun afterwards to see if it was a stolen, and if so, it is returned to its rightful owner.
Each of the buy-back locations will be staffed by two uniformed officers from the local police departments who will take the guns and ensure they are unloaded and safe for handling. The staffers from the prosecutor’s office, which will include two investigators and an agent at each location, along with three roving supervisors, will take down the serial number of each gun and dispense the cash.
And what of the guns that are bought back? While a handful may go into a police department arsenal, if appropriate, Glaser said 99.9 percent will be destroyed.
The five buy-back locations are the lobbies of the Sayreville, South Brunswick, Edison and Carteret police departments, and the rear entrance of the New Brunswick Police Department.
The program will be run Friday from 2-8 p.m.; Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m.
For more information, call the prosecutor’s office at (732) 745-3300, or call one of the five police departments hosting the program.