Detroit Police Gun Buyback Out of Cash

Officials began exchanging cash for guns at 10 a.m. and by 1 p.m., had received more than 400 guns and paid out more than $20,000, Detroit Police Sgt. Eren Stephens said.

"It's great," she said. "We're very happy. We see citizens are stepping up. They are realizing they can be part of the solution."

The event comes as the city grapples with an increase in murders of young black men over the last several years.

Anyone can bring broken and functioning firearms for cash to Second Ebenezer Church, 14601 Dequindre until 6 p.m. today. Police will pay from $25 for a gun that doesn't work to $50 for a gun that does to $100 for two or more guns. Cash was handed out until vouchers had to be used, Stephens said.

Continental Management donated the money for the program, which is the department's first this year.

"We have to get guns out of circulation," Interim Detroit Police Chief Ralph Godbee Jr. said. "We don't know for sure what these guns would be used for, but we know they won't be used for crimes."

Black men ages 15-24 years old make up only 7 percent of the city's population, but account for more than 25 percent of all of the homicides in the city, according to data obtained by The News from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office.

The gun program is only one way activists and police are fighting the trend. At Second Ebenezer Church, officials have organized patrols at schools, set up mentoring programs and worked with youth to stay on the right path, said the Rev. Edgar Vann, pastor of the church.

"We're now working to pull together a coalition of churches and faith-based groups to work along with us in other areas of the city," said Vann, whose church and Vanguard Community Development Corp. focus on the city's north end.

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