-Organizers report 150 guns exchanged for grocery gift cards-
To commemorate National Gun Violence Awareness Month, the City of Roanoke hosted its annual ‘Groceries Not Guns’ (GNG)event last Saturday at the Melrose Community Center. Now in its third year, the gun buyback event exchanges firearms for grocery gift cards which range from $150 to $250, depending on the style of weapon.
Between 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., approximately 150 firearms were collected and later melted down.
Numerous organizations and businesses partnered together to make the event a success: Roanoke Police Department, Carilion Clinic, Roanoke Quaker Meeting, Kroger, Food Lion, and Chick-fil-A as well as Carilion representatives who were on hand to give out free gun locks and share vital information on mental health resources.
Roanoke Branch NAACP President Brenda Hale said “If everyone did their part, we could eradicate all of this gun violence. We are doing our part here, but we can’t do it by ourselves. We need more people to get involved.”
Gun violence remains the leading cause of death for teenagers in America. LeShay Kearney, a mother who tragically lost her 16-year-old son Jaquice two years ago to a bullet, says she is sick and tired of the senseless gun violence in Roanoke. Kearney took the pain of losing a child and joined certain organizations to help prevent others from experiencing what she endured.
“What we want to do is reduce the number of guns inside homes. A lot of people have a misunderstanding that you need a gun to feel safe in your house. We know from statistics that homes without guns are safer than homes with guns,” Michael Heller, clerk of the Roanoke Quaker Meeting, said. “When people decide to turn in a gun, that is a big decision. And we respect those individuals tremendously.”
Noted Roanoke’s Vice Mayor Joe Cobb, “We had a steady flow of people coming in for different reasons. One gentleman came in from Martinsville because he saw coverage of the event on the news. People were very patient and kind throughout the day.”
Two shootings less than five miles apart from each other happened hours after the gun buyback event. The man police found lying in the street on the 1700 block of Melrose Avenue was transported to Carilion, where he later died. The other shooting happened at the Cookout on Hershberger Road. According to officials, one adult and one juvenile male sustained non-life-threatening gunshot wounds.
“In almost every instance gun violence is preventable,” said Dr. Catherine Koebel Stromberg, one of several buyback event coordinators. Stromberg who helped write the grants for the Groceries Not Guns event, added, “Every gun that we buy back gets destroyed and can’t cause any harm in the community. People need to know that there is a different way. Everyone in Roanoke deserves to live in a safe community.”
If there’s a gun that people don’t want in their home, whether it be because of mental concerns or something else, police say it can always be turned in to the department. Any gun inside a house, they added, should always be locked with the ammunition stored separately.
