Time for a good news story, right? I am happy to share something positive that happened in the Northwest section of Philadelphia three Saturdays ago.
Thanks to The Father’s Day Rally Committee, St. Luke’s Church of Germantown, St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children, Tasker Street Baptist Church, Philadelphia City Councilwoman Cindy Bass, and The Episcopal Churches in the Wissahickon Deanery, we have 118 less guns on the streets of Philadelphia today. On Saturday, August 3, 2024, the partners just mentioned hosted a Gun Buy Back Program on the grounds of St. Luke’s Church at 5421 Germantown Avenue. The event was slated to run from 10:00 am -2:00 pm. However, by 12 noon, 118 guns were turned in, and 118 gift cards, valued at two hundred dollars each, were distributed to the individuals who turned in the guns.
The public was told they could bring a gun–any kind of gun, as long as it is a working gun, they would receive a two hundred dollar Visa Gift Card, said Bilal Qayyum, Founder of the Father’s Day Rally Committee. “We don’t ask questions. If you have a gun in your house, whether it is an illegal gun or not, and you don’t want it in your house, those are the people we are looking for to attend our gun buyback events.
At the time of the press conference that the coalition of groups hosted before the August 3 Gun Bug Back event, Bilal Qayyum stated, “We are thirty-eight homicides less, as of this date, than we were at this time, last year. Shootings are down as well. But it’s very important while everybody is kind of like celebrating, that the gun-play is down, shootings are down, homicides are down, we can’t relax now. This is the time when we really have to be very aggressive with getting the word out that we still have a problem in this city of Philadelphia with shootings. Yes, the numbers are down, but those numbers can go up. For example, the shooting last week in West Philadelphia, where ten people were shot, and three of them were killed. The month before, there was a shooting in Southwest Philadelphia, the same kinds of things–multiple people shot. What I am saying is we can’t relax now. We have to become even more aggressive in getting guns that could potentially be used in a crime.”
Father David Morris from St. Luke’s Church stated, “This was our second Gun Buy Back event that we’ve been a part of. The people who turned in guns the first time we hosted a Gun Buy Back event were people who had children in their homes, whether grandchildren, children, or people taking care of little ones. And they told us they were uncomfortable having those guns in their homes. So, the number of handguns that came in, it’s hard to say how many children were saved, but rest assured that some were. The lives of children are important to all of us, so let’s make sure we get unwanted guns and illegal guns off the street.
I want to reiterate Bilal Qayyum’s remarks, commented 8th District Philadelphia City Councilwoman Cindy Bass. “Bilal has been out here on the front lines for a very long time now. I’ve heard some people say gun buybacks don’t matter; gun buybacks don’t work. I am here to tell you that they do work, and they work in tandem with all of the other activities that are happening to reduce the level of gun violence. The fact that we’re down thirty-eight homicides from last year at this time, it didn’t just happen. It happened for a reason, and there’s been a lot of effort to address gun violence in Philadelphia, and there’s more effort to come. I want to applaud him and the Father’s Day Rally Committee for all of the work that they do. Let’s get unwanted guns out of our homes and out of our communities. They’ve been quite a source of pain and grief in many families.
After the successful Gun Buy Back event hosted (earlier this month) at St. Luke’s Church, Bilal Qayyum shared that the next Gun Buy Back is slated for a date in the early Fall. Stay tuned to learn the date. It will take place at The Tasker Street Baptist Church at 2010 Tasker Street in South Philadelphia.
Just think, in less than 3 hours, thanks to this Gun Buy Back effort, 118 guns were taken off the streets of Philadelphia. I think that was a wonderful and successful effort that was undertaken three weeks ago.
In closing, Bilal Qayyum added, “I have to say thank you to the SCOOP Newspaper, to 6ABC, to CBS-3, to NBC-10, and Fox-29 for running our story about our most recent Gun Buy Back event. Without the media, the public wouldn’t know these things are happening, So thank you, Philadelphia media, for carrying our story.”
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