Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, December 30, 1993 TAG: 9312300111
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE MOKRZYCKI ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Long
Joe bought his handgun for $20 on the street, to protect himself at work at a convenience store. But both times he was held up, he was too afraid to use it.
Frank bought an illegal rifle, also for $20, to protect his family in their tough Bronx neighborhood. With the gun at his side, he'd watch out the window while his father ran errands. He worried about the weapon's unknown past - and future.
Joanne inherited the two rifles and pistol her father had bought after Martin Luther King was assassinated. While she still feared rampant crime in her Brooklyn neighborhood, she had no use for the weapons.
And so, when a businessman announced a privately funded plan would offer $100 in toy-store gift certificates for guns surrendered to police, Joe, Frank and Joanne were among the hundreds who couldn't refuse.
Dozens of people crowded into the 34th Precinct police station in Manhattan's crime-ridden Washington Heights on Tuesday, after the week-old toys-for-guns swap was extended at least through Jan. 6. Each gun also is worth $75 cash under a citywide no-questions-asked amnesty.
As donations mount, momentum is building to expand the program throughout the city - where there are 2,000 homicides a year, and countless guns - and to other cities.
There are 211 million firearms - including 71 million handguns - in the United States, said Jack Killorin, a spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in Washington.
Some people turning in guns were noticeably nervous from the time they entered the station house until they left with gift certificates and cash in hand. Many wouldn't talk to a reporter.
Joe, Frank and Joanne would. Their names have been made up, because they spoke on condition of anonymity.
Joe, a 25-year-old store clerk, drove 90 minutes from his home in suburban Rockland County to the 34th Precinct. He said he bought his .25-caliber pistol on the spur of the moment two years ago.
A drug addict he'd seen a few times before walked into the convenience store and offered it for $20. Talk about convenience.
Knowing that the store had been robbed several times, "I figured the gun would be necessary," Joe said. "Then I regretted the fact that I bought it. If I use it I can get into trouble, even if I use it for self-defense."
He also feared getting into a gunfight, so both times he was held up, the pistol sat under the counter and he turned over the cash.
"I was waiting for something like this to get rid of the gun," Joe said. "It came at the perfect time."
He couldn't quite believe that he had just walked into a police station with an illegal gun. He remembered asking the first officer he saw whether he'd be locked up. "He said, `No - we'll give you money for that.' "
That wasn't the only reason he liked the swap. In a comment echoed by police and community leaders, he added: "If it saves one life, then it's worth it."
Frank said he bought his sawed-off .22-caliber rifle about four months ago for $20 from "an acquaintance of a friend - you know how it is." He said he got it for "home protection."
"We're all under fire. Everybody's been shooting everybody for no reason," Frank said.
"You've got these 13-year-olds who don't have anything, who want your sneakers or your jacket, and they'll just do you in. . . . For them, that's the way of life around here. That's the way the two generations before us have been raised, and this is their mentality."
When his father or a friend would walk outside, Frank, 30, would sit by the window and watch them, not aiming the rifle but keeping it ready at his side.
Ever since he got the gun, though, he's worried about it. "I don't know what it's been used for in the past," Frank said.
"I don't need to live with this problem. I don't need to live with hurting someone that way, or making a mistake and hurting myself or my family." He said he never had fired it.
"So this is a good way to get rid of it. I made a profit off of it."
He came to the police station with the beneficiaries of his gun trade: his 10-year-old brother and 8-year-old son, who'll get toys.
Frank said he had no other guns. Was he worried about that?
"We're making plans to just relocate out of the city," he said.
"My 19-year-old daughter was bugging me to bring them in," said Joanne, who had just turned in two rifles and a pistol.
"I said, I don't know, I'll wait till they pick one place in Brooklyn, because this was so far for me to come. But she said, `Mommy, get the toys, and we could use the money to buy clothes or food.' "
Joanne's father bought the guns from a pawn shop to protect his home after King's assassination led to rioting.
She had seen her neighborhood become increasingly violent: "There's fear everywhere." She had never used her father's guns and never planned to, so Joanne, 36, was happy that now at least they'd be worth something to her children.
"I'm going to buy them some clothes and some toys, that's what I'm going to do," she said.
by CNB