State Buyback Nets Over 1,500 Guns in Monmouth

More than 1,500 weapons, including 45 illegal guns, an AK-47 and 15 other assault rifles, were netted by the state-run gun buyback program held in two Monmouth County locations last weekend, officials said.

A total of 1,581 guns were collected in Asbury Park and Keansburg on March 8 and 9. This was the fourth buyback program in the county, supervised by the State Attorney General's Office.

The state has now collected 7,092 firearms from state-run buyback programs, according to Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa.

The buybacks are funded by money forefitted in criminal busts. In Monmouth County, law enforcement officers paid an average of $132 per gun, for a maximum of three guns per person. The county program cost $209,175 last weekend, officials said.

“Every gun turned in during this program had the potential to harm someone, whether intentionally or accidentally, because no one is immune to the potential of gun violence especially police officers and any of our sons and daughters,” said Christopher J. Gramiccioni, acting Monmouth County prosecutor, in a release. 

Chiesa said each gun will be checked against stolen gun records, but the investigation goes no further than that. All gun buyback days are operated with amnesty and anonymity, he said.

The guns will be destroyed by the state.

Types of illegal weapons collected:

• 12 sawed-off shotguns
• one 12-gauge shotgun with a “streetsweeper” drum cartridge
• one Tech-9 semi-automatic pistol
• one AK-47 assault rifle and three M-1 type assault rifles