It took less than three hours Saturday, Feb. 23,
to collect 355 firearms at a three-city gun buyback event in East Palo Alto, the
first private/public buyback of its kind on the Midpeninsula.
With a
line of cars, driven by would-be gun sellers, snaking along University Avenue
for hours, the buyback would have collected even more if it hadn't run out of
money.
In total, gun owners brought 355 firearms to exchange for $52,000
that had been privately raised by the nonprofit Protect Our Children Bay Area.
More than 200 shotguns, 100 handguns and about a dozen assault rifles were
turned in, Lt. Zach Perron of the Palo Alto Police Department said during a
press conference Saturday afternoon.
When the funds ran out, people who
were already in the East Palo Alto City Hall parking lot ready to turn in their
weapons were given IOU vouchers, and everyone else lined up was given fliers for
the next buyback on March 2, he said.
About 100 individuals donated the
$52,000, according to Roger Lee of Palo Alto, who founded the Menlo Park-based
Protect Our Children with Palo Altan James Cook.
Elected officials,
including East Palo Alto Mayor Ruben Abrica and San Mateo County District
Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe and Assemblyman Richard Gordon, D-Menlo Park, turned
out to support the buyback.
Gordon called the fundraising
"outstanding."
"Private funds were raised, the public sector public
police department, law-enforcement agencies were here collecting the guns,
overseeing the collection. So it really was a public-private partnership," he
said.
Some officials, including Abrica, also spoke at a rally held
earlier in the day in Palo Alto, organized by the group Silicon Valley Community
Against Gun Violence to coincide with the buyback.
Group members held
signs reading "Protects kids, not guns" and "Too many children are dying."
Rep. Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo, who was ambushed and shot decades ago
while investigating the People's Temple cult in Jonestown, Guyana, spoke to the
crowd at City Hall.
"This is our moment to make history in this
country," Speier said. "It's time to put some rationality in laws that have been
systematically unwoven ... by leaders of the NRA (National Rifle Association)."
Palo Alto parent Scott Best talked about his concern after the Newton,
Conn., shooting and added that opposition to gun violence is not a liberal or
conservative issue.
"There is no blue America; there is no red America.
This is the United States of America," he said.
Activist Mindy
Finkelstein, who has been working with the Brady Campaign To Prevent Gun
Violence, told the story of how she was shot at 16 years old along with several
others at the North Valley Jewish Community Center by a self-proclaimed
neo-Nazi.
"Our rights should not go on without regulation," she said.
"(Dianne) Feinstein's regulation won't pass without our support."
Ian
Johnstone, whose father died from a blood clot after being shot, talked about
opposition from the gun industry and emphasized his belief in the importance of
advocating in Washington D.C. and mounting larger buyback programs.
"That's very exciting," he said about the money for East Palo Alto's
event running out. "There needs to be more money; there needs to be more events.
There's a lot of work and a lot of energy and attention being focused right now
on what's happening in D.C. We still have a mess we need to clean up, a lot of
hazardous weapons around."
Bonnie Bernstein, a member of Silicon Valley
Community Against Gun Violence and a therapist who specializes in trauma, wanted
people to see the effects of gun violence on families and
communities.
"We are hoping to keep on pressuring politicians to get a
vote for Obama," she said.
Palo Alto resident Alex Beretta found out
about the rally online and stopped by after it finished.
"I'm really
anti-gun," he said. "It's good to see this happen and to see interest.
Hopefully, it'll last."
Cook, who is a parent of elementary-school-aged
children, said he was pleased with how both the buyback and rally turned out and
hopes to host more events soon.
"I guess the only thing I'm sad about is
that we didn't raise even more money," he said. "Now we have to do some thing
else. It's great to have both things happening. We want to be able to have the
gun buyback and have it run safely and quietly. But at the same time we want to
raise awareness."
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