Belmont Police to Participate in First Regional Gun Buyback

BELMONT, MA - The Belmont Police Department is partnering with law enforcement from four other municipalities in Middlesex County to hold the county's first regional gun buyback in June.

Belmont police are joined by the Arlington, Cambridge, Somerville and Watertown police departments, various community and faith-based organizations and the Middlesex Sheriff's Office to provide residents with a safe and secure method of disposing of unwanted firearms from their homes.

"Nationwide more than 20,000 people commit suicide with a firearm and another 16,000 are injured in unintentional shootings each year," Middlesex Sheriff Peter Koutoujian said in a press release. "Providing residents with an avenue to safely dispose of unwanted firearms makes our communities – and especially our homes – safer, and we are proud to support our partners in this effort."

Events will be held throughout the month of June, beginning June 11 in Arlington, Belmont and Cambridge, relocating to Watertown June 18 and ending in Somerville June 25.

According to data from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, cited by the release, 115 Massachusetts residents died as a result of a firearm-related suicide in 2013.

"This event represents one of the many ways in which the police and the community are able to form partnerships to help keep people in our community safe," Belmont Police Chief Richard McLaughlin said in the release. "The number of firearms that we received at our first gun buyback event in 2014 helped to demonstrate the effectiveness of these kinds of programs."