Residents Can Get Cash for Firearms This Week

Passaic County residents can turn in firearms this week at a Guns for Cash buyback program sponsored by the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office and the state Attorney General’s Office.

Residents can turn in firearms “no questions asked,” on Friday and Saturday between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. at the Gilmore Memorial Tabernacle Church in Paterson and St. Anthony of Padua R.C. Church in Passaic, state Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa announced.

Up to three firearms of any type may be turned in. Participants can receive up to $250 per weapon, depending on the type of gun and its condition.

The Attorney General Office’s Division of Criminal Justice and the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office are providing the forfeiture money.

More than 9,000 firearms were turned in at five prior state-sponsored buyback initiatives held throughout New Jersey this year. More than 1,100 guns turned in were illegal to possess because they had “unlawfully high ammunition capacities,” sawed-off barrels, or were otherwise modified, authorities announced.

Eighteen people were killed in Passaic County last year by being shot, county Prosecutor Camelia Valdes said in a statement.

“If we can buy back these guns that are accessible, we prevent their availability and hopefully prevent tragic gun violence,” Valdes said.

Residents with questions about the program should call the attorney general’s Citizen Services Unit at 609-984-5828 or visit nj.gov/guns.