Houston’s second gun buyback program sees record numbers: ‘We believe this is the largest’

The city of Houston held its second gun buyback event Saturday morning and officials believe the turnout made history.

Hundreds of cars lined up at the city’s Westchase Metro Park and Ride to participate in the program, which is part of Mayor Sylvester Turner’s OneSafe Houston initiative.

A few hours after the event was over, the mayor’s office announced 1,208 guns were turned in on Saturday in exchange for a gift card, which is about 400 more than the 845 collected during Houston’s first buyback in July.

A $50 gift card was available for a non-functioning firearm, $100 for a shotgun or hunting rifle, $150 for a revolver or semi-automatic handgun, and $200 for a semi-automatic rifle.

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The mayor’s office broke down the total numbers of guns collected as follows: 368 revolvers, 279 semi-automatic handguns, 243 shotguns, 227 rifles and 91 semi-automatic rifles.

“We believe this the largest one-day gun buyback collection, if not the largest, in U.S. history,” the city of Houston said on Twitter.

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In a joint news conference during the event, Houston police Chief Troy Finner said he was pleased with the turnout so far.

“I’m looking forward to even more gun buybacks,” Finner said. “It removes guns off the streets and puts them in good hands, so that’s a good thing.”

U.S. Rep. Al Green was also at the news conference and said the buyback program is “not an effort to take guns,” but one way to return stolen guns to their rightful owners.

“We are obviously buying them, but if we find a gun, and this has happened, that was stolen, that gun is returned to the person that had the gun first,” Green said. “You’re going to get your gun back.”

There was a 25 gun limit per vehicle. Anyone turning in more than that was required to make a separate appointment with the city and police department.