[St. Louis Post-Dispatch] ST. LOUIS • Hundreds of people turned up Saturday morning for a well-publicized gun buyback opportunity that officials hope will make the community safer.
It was so popular that many left without their hoped-for holiday cash.
Lured by the promise of $100 to $200 per weapon, with no questions asked, participants schlepped bags full of pistols, rifles and shotguns, many of them old and rugged.
"My brother in Arkansas rabbit-hunted with it all last year," Willie Shelton, 67, of the city’s Penrose neighborhood, said of a pump 20-gauge shotgun that hadn’t been oiled in a long time. "It was just sitting in the corner, and I heard on the news that I could get $150."
Behind him, Stan Sisley toted a .22-caliber rifle in a guitar sack. The inherited gun had been in a storage unit in north St. Louis County. Around 10 a.m., he and his wife were at the very end of a line that zigzagged out the Omega Center, 3900 Goodfellow Boulevard, through the parking lot and down the block.
"Might as well get rid of it, and I could use the Christmas money," said Sisley, 62.
But he didn’t get the chance. After the couple waited in the cold more than two hours, he said, officials began turning people away at 12:15, unless they had assault weapons or wanted to donate their guns.
"I think maybe they didn’t expect the turnout that it was," he said. "Maybe they will be more prepared next time."
Doug Albrecht, president of the St. Louis Police Foundation, said $125,000 in donations was raised from the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis, individuals and companies such as Ameren and Spire to pay for the guns.
Leading up to the event, Albrecht expected about 500 to 1,000 guns to be gathered and destroyed. Should there be more, he said then, more fundraising would be needed for another event in the new year. 
|
