INDIANAPOLIS —The Marion County Youth Violence Prevention Coalition offered a gun surrender event at the Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church parking lot on Saturday. As compensation, participants were awarded gas gift cards.
Guns were dismantled on site. Local artists and Indy Peace Fellows will one day reuse them as resources for art pieces and garden tools.
The event provided an opportunity to dispose of unloaded guns without returning them to the marketplace, where they could be used for future harm.
The gun donors were left anonymous. The Marion County Youth Violence Prevention Coalition also asked for confirmation that the turned-in guns were not stolen nor used for a crime.
Skilled personnel removed the firearms from vehicles and transferred them to a saw station. There, the guns were cut down and dismantled, according to guidelines from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Participants were given gas gift cards for turning in guns. The amounts were as follows.
- $25 for a non-functioning firearm
- $100 for a shotgun or rifle
- $150 for a revolver or semi-automatic handgun
- $200 for a semi-automatic rifle
In order to ensure additional safety, The Marion County Youth Violence Prevention Coalition also distributed a limited supply of free gun lock boxes to firearm-owning Indianapolis residents.
