Middlesex County Gun Buyback Nets 1,800 Guns

Middlesex County’s gun buyback program removes over 1,800 firearms off the street.

Last weekend, gun buyback sites were set up in Sacred Heart Parish Hall in New Brunswick, the Sayre Woods Bible Church in Old Bridge and Cathedral International in Perth Amboy. Collectively, the three locations received 1,844 firearms; 800 handguns, 352 rifles, 344 shotguns and 60 assault weapons.

During a press conference in Edison at the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office Training Center in Edison, Acting New Jersey Attorney General John Hoffman said the amount of handguns taken off the street will have a big impact towards the safety or law enforcement and civilians.

“Though they’re not the biggest on the table, they’re in many respects the most threatening because they are the most concealable.”

Nearly 16,000 firearms have now been collected in the 10 buyback events the state has staged in recent months.

The Middlesex buyback cost $266,250 in state and county criminal forfeiture funds.  "(We) took money from criminals to get guns off the streets. Pretty good deal if you think about it,” said Hoffman.

Among the weapons turned in were an M1 military-style rifle, a Plainfield Arms carbine rifle, a TEC 9 semi-automatic handgun, a TEC 22 semi-automatic handgun and two AR-15 rifles, a similar type of weapon to that used in the Sandy Hook shootings.