In a government-sponsored buyback programme to combat gun crime in the United States, over 3,000 weapons, including assault weapons, were surrendered in a single day on Saturday across New York state in exchange for gift cards.
“We recovered 3,076 guns today, including 185 assault weapons. Every single one of these guns represents a potential tragedy averted,” New York Attorney General Letitia James tweeted. The state attorney general’s office hosted the Saturday’s programme.
Participants were offered $500 gift cards in exchange for surrendering untraceable “ghost guns” and assault-type rifles with no questions asked, ABC news reported.
Similarly, each surrendered handgun earned the participants a $500 gift card for the first weapon and a $150 gift card for each additional handgun. Those who returned non-working reproductions, antiques, or 3D printed guns also earned $25 gift cards, while those who surrendered other types of rifles and shotguns received $75 gift cards.
Cases of gun violence are on the rise in the United States. Over 145 mass shootings have been reported in the country, with at least 15 taking place this year alone.
President Joe Biden has also advocated complete ban on gun violence. During State of the Union address earlier in the year, Biden said, “Ban assault weapons once and for all. We did it before. I led the fight to ban them in 1994. In the 10 years the ban was law, mass shootings went down. After Republicans let it expire, mass shootings tripled. Let’s finish the job and ban assault weapons again.”
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In Syracuse, New York, where police reported a 133% rise in homicides during the first four months of this year compared to the same period last year, 751 weapons were turned in, the ABC news report added.