Sergeant Rocco Santorsola shows off a MAC 10 assault weapon exchanged for $200 at the gun buyback in Rumson Friday morning. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
One man turned in a Russian infantry rifle given to him as a gift he didn’t really want, but accepted to be gracious.
A Red Bank couple surrendered a World War II-era Spanish pistol they found in their backyard during a renovation project.
And somebody else – authorities did not ask who – got $200 in exchange for a menacing looking MAC 10 assault weapon.
Just four hours into a two-day gun buyback in Rumson Friday, business was “brisk,” said borough police Detective Christopher Isherwood.
By 12:30 p.m., authorities authorities had collected 75 weapons, said Sergeant Rocco Santorsola, of the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s office, which is running the two-day cash-for-guns program in Rumson and Asbury Park.
“The main thing is getting them off the streets and getting them out of homes” where the residents don’t want the weapons, Santorsola told redbankgreen.
Sellers are promised anonymity: no identification is requested, nor are those who turn in weapons asked how they came into possession of them, officials said. Weapons are checked against a national crime database to see if they’ve been stolen; in those cases, they may be returned to their original owners. But such matches are “very, very rare,” he said.
“I just wanted them out of the house,” one woman told redbankgreen of the firearms she turned in.
Not everyone found the program to his liking, though. One man, with his son in tow, left with the two rifles he’d come to turn in when he learned he could get just $25 for each.
The event continues until 5 p.m. And runs from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday in the rear parking lot at borough hall.
