TRENTON - New Jersey Acting Attorney General Andrew J. Bruck announced a "Guns for Cash" event will be held in Atlantic City on Saturday, Aug. 7 at Atlantic City Fire Station No. 1, 900 Atlantic Ave. Other buyback programs will be held simultaneously in Patterson, East Orange and Newark.
Residents can turn in up to three firearms with no questions asked and receive as much as $250 per weapon.
Police officers will be stationed at the site to collect and secure the guns. The program is funded with forfeiture dollars obtained by local police departments, county prosecutor's offices and the NJ Division of Criminal Justice.
The buyback is part of Gov. Phil Murphy's three-pronged approach to combat gun violence across the state, along with evidence-based policing strategies and community-based prevention programs.
"The rise in shootings across our country and throughout our state is deeply painful, and our office is deploying all available tools to attack the problem from every possible angle," Bruck said in a release. "This buyback initiative is part of our broad-based, ongoing efforts to stop the violence in our communities and save lives by reducing the number of firearms in circulation. There are too many illegal guns on the street and too many people impacted by the trauma of gun violence, and I urge residents to help make their homes and their neighborhoods safer by participating in these gun buyback programs."
Acting Atlantic County Prosecutor Cary Shill thanked the state for its support.
"Far too many of our citizens' lives are being lost and families ruined by the plague of gun violence," Shill said. "While there may not be a single catch-all solution, this gun buyback program represents a step down the path to a safer New Jersey."
For more information, contact the Attorney General's Office of Consultant Services at 609-984-5828 or see www.njoag.gov/gunbuyback/
