

Even though he would not mention PIX11 by name, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly acknowledged that the station's three-week-long series focusing on the importance of removing illegal guns from the streets helped significantly in creating last Saturday's record turnout for the gun buyback event.

"I know there was a lot of focus on the evolution of [last Saturday's gun buyback], and we appreciate it very much," Kelly said about the event that brought in a total of 507 weapons, of which 479 were guns.


Another coordinator of the event, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown, cited PIX11 specifically in reviewing the turnout. "The program was touted heavily by Channel 11," Brown said in an interview, "And you folks are why we did as well as we did."

Here are the specifics as to how well the program went. 245 revolvers, 168 semiautomatic pistols, 31 shotguns and 35 rifles were turned in. Among them was an AK-47 assault rifle, a Calico M950 semiautomatic pistol, which can fire 50 rounds in a matter of seconds, a Tec-9 semiautomatic and multiple Glock semiautomatic pistols.

All of those devices which had been designed to shoot ammunition will now be used to hang clothes, according to the police commissioner.

"They'll be made into coat hangers," Ray Kelly said at a news conference. "We have a contract with a company that does it. It's our version of turning swords into plowshares. We turn guns into coat hangers."

In addition to PIX11, sponsors Armani Exchange, the Andrew Sabin Foundation, the Real Estate Board of New York, the New York Hotel Workers Union and the Trump Foundation paid over $80,000 for the illegal firearms. They paid $200 for each gun and $20 for each rifle.

One of the main coordinators of the buyback, State Senator Malcolm Smith, challenged entertainment figures, particularly hip hop stars, to sponsor a gun buyback in the future.

"What you see today might be a byproduct of what you make money off of," Sen. Smith said, referring to dozens of weapons on display that were seized in the buyback, and which are at times the subject of various popular songs and videos. "We need you to step up and give us some help, so we can keep guns off the street."

Sen. Smith also mentioned in an interview with PIX11 News that he is set to introduce legislation this month in Albany that would send to prison for up to eight years any person found guilty of illegally carrying a gun. If passed, the bill would be a sharp contrast to the current illegal carry penalty.

"It's up to a judge's discretion, [and] most of the time they get a year or so," Sen. Smith said. "They come out, it's a badge of honor, all is good. I'm saying, 'You have an illegal weapon in your possession, you're going away for a long time.'"

Commissioner Kelly also pointed out that while the PIX11 Victory Over Violence gun buyback at New Jerusalem Baptist Church in Jamaica, Queens was a success "by all accounts," every police precinct is n around-the-clock gun buyback location. Anyone wishing to turn in a gun can do so at any NYPD precinct, and the weapon will be bought for $100.