Gun Buy-Back Backfires
When Officers Cash In
By MIKE CLAFFEY
Daily News Staff Writer
gun buy-back program to get illegal weapons off the streets had to be altered yesterday after a
stampede of court officers tried to cash in.
Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes ordered changes in the initiative when he found out that court
officers — some of them in uniform — were handing in their old .38-caliber service revolvers.
Because the program had pulled in only about 200 guns since the one-month window began July 1,
Hynes upped the reward on Monday from $100 to $250 per gun.
"We had a surge last night of about 100 guns and they all seem to be .38 service revolvers," said a
source in the prosecutor's office.
One court officer collected $1,500 by turning in six guns.
"This is a program with good intentions to get illegal guns off the street and shouldn't be bastardized
by people looking for a quick buck," said Hynes' spokesman, Kevin Davitt.
"We're going to be contacting those people who abused the program and ask for our money back,"
Davitt said.
But a spokesman for the court system, David Bookstaver, said it is not clear that the officers can be
forced to do that.
"District Attorney Hynes has indicated that this is really not in the spirit of what the program was
designed for," Bookstaver said.
But he added that court officials "have no authority" to tell the officers to give the money back.
He said, however, that word was going out yesterday that court officers can no longer participate.
Some court officers in Brooklyn were upset that Hynes had forbidden them from participating in the
buy-back offer. The officers were allowed to keep their revolvers after they were issued 9-mm.
semiautomatics last year.
"I have the flyer right here and it says, 'Any working handgun, sawed-off shotgun or assault rifle. No
questions asked.'" said Bob Patelli a Senior Court Officers Association delegate at Brooklyn Supreme
Court.
"If the DA sees fit to discontinue the program, fine. But he's bound legally to pay for the guns he's
already taken."
Patelli added that the program was achieving its goal of getting extra guns out of circulation.
"It gets the gun off the street instead of leaving it in a closet where children or a burglar could find
them," he said.
Last year, 659 firearms were turned in for $100 each. The money comes from drug forfeiture funds,
Davitt said.
"We thought that perhaps $100 was not meeting the value that some people place on these
weapons," he said.
To be turned in, guns must be wrapped in brown paper and can be taken to any Brooklyn precinct
house. If the gun is deemed operable, the desk officer is supposed to give the person a pink voucher
that can be redeemed at the district attorney's office at 350 Jay St.
