The Hamden Police Department received a total of 103 working firearms, including two assault weapons over this past weekend during its second-ever Gun Buyback event allowing individuals to safely dispose of unwanted firearms.
Donations were accepted from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. where many residents and non-residents could receive cash and gift cards in exchange for working firearms. The goal of the Gun Buyback program is to eliminate unwanted guns, especially in the hands of those who should not have them. The program grants full anonymity while educating them on safe storage practices.
This year’s event was sponsored by Hamden’s Police Department, Swords to Plowshares Northeast, and the Strengthening Police & Community Partnerships program. The major fiduciaries were Three Brother’s Diner, Franklin Communities, along with the event’s key sponsor, Fixing Fathers Inc.
Fixing Fathers Inc. is a non-profit organization local to the town of Hamden that began in 2017. The goal of this organization is to help fathers become more engaged with their children and more involved in their family life. The organization’s president, Dr. David Asbery received a call from the mayor’s office, and he believed this would be a great opportunity for his organization.
“You support the event, and you get back 10 guns. That’s 10 less guns that are on the street or in someone’s house that can harm someone, so that’s the piece that I get excited over,” Asbery explained. “An individual sees this as a gun in the house that they don’t want anymore, they don’t know what to do with it, and they can get some money for it. It’s sort of a win-win.”
Dr. David Asbery also expressed his desire to be able to join future Gun Buyback events.
“If it fits and we have the funding and we can support it, I’m hoping that we will be able to,” Asbery said.
Those who attended the event were greeted with a blacksmith demonstration from Swords to Plowshares, where they could see donated guns being turned into garden tools.
John Cerritelli, a blacksmith for the organization, described the process of turning different guns into different tools. It usually takes about one to two hours to complete one set depending on what they are creating.
Cerritelli chose to get involved with the organization because of his personal connection to the cause since “it makes quite a difference in the community.”
Pina Violano, one of the co-founders of Swords to Plowshares Northeast, said that a major desire for the organization is to help make the communities better.
“We consider it a 360-degree program that really repurposes these weapons and it’s why we call it tools of death to tools of life,” Violano said.
Swords to Plowshares Northeast is an affiliate of Guns to Gardens that has held numerous Gun Buyback programs across cities in Connecticut and nationwide.
“We take the guns from the Gun Buyback, dismantle them with the police department, and then we take the pieces of those guns and transform them into garden tools and give them back to community gardens,” Violano said. “Here’s a gun, taken off the street, and we turned it into something that’s going to cultivate life.”
Violano went on to speak about the individuals who told their powerful stories at the last Buyback event she attended in New Haven back in June.
“We had two people, one in particular that told us about a family member that committed suicide with a firearm, and they wanted all the guns out of their home,” Violano said “And then another person had actually had a family member killed by another family member who used a firearm on them and had mental health issues. So I have to believe what we’re doing is good and that it’s making a difference.”
In other ways to help make a difference in the community, Acting Chief of Police Timothy Wydra spoke on the importance of the Gun Buyback event during Hamden PD’s press conference regarding recent crimes and arrests held on Sept. 15.
“It’s an important moment for us to have for the people out there who have guns at home or wherever that they don’t want anymore,” Wydra explained.
Wydra listed off many different reasons to turn in unwanted guns, including preventing accidents, discharges or even a child getting a hold of a gun.
“We all know that guns lead to a lot of these incidents (crimes). They also might lead to people who might cause injury to themselves,” Wydra said.