Local

NAACP Launches Gun Buyback Effort

May 13th, 2013

The Atlanta Branch of the NAACP is hoping to partner with other local organizations to start a gun buyback program. The group says it’s starting the program because of federal inaction when it comes to gun control.

The program is called Project Rescue Atlanta and is aimed at preventing gun violence and other crime. Atlanta NAACP president Reverend R.L. White says the local effort is needed after legislation to expand background checks for gun purchases recently failed in the U.S. Senate.

“If we can’t do it from the national level we’ve got to start some grassroots effort to help ourselves, because especially in the African-American community too many people are being killed, innocent people, random shooting, drive by shooting, you name it.”

White says the NAACP and those it partners with will raise money to purchase guns from local residents.

“There are people in the neighborhoods who know where the guns are…Many of them are afraid right now that gun violence is going to hit their homes. They can help us find the guns and they can help us to take those guns.”

White hopes to model its program after a recent gun buyback event held in Los Angeles. During the Los Angeles event, more than one-thousand guns were turned in during a single weekend. So far, the NAACP has gained endorsement for the program from the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, the Atlanta Police Department and several groups advocating against domestic violence. Ted Jackson is Fulton County’s sheriff.

“The NAACP this is their program, but it helps us because if we can do something to prevent violence it makes it safer not only for the citizens but also for our officers.”

Jackson says there will be no questions asked of those turning guns in as part of the program unless authorities discover they were stolen or used in a crime. The NAACP plans to set a date for the buyback program once it begins meeting with its partners.