Gun Turn-In Program's Intent Is Education, Brick Chief Says

BRICK, NJ — A program announced by the Brick Township Police Department to allow people to turn in unwanted firearms in Brick has set off a firestorm of criticism among guns rights supporters, who have called it fear-mongering.

Brick Township Police Chief James Riccio says the critics are off-base.

"We are not trying to disarm citizens who legally own firearms," Riccio said Wednesday. "The intent was to let people know that there is a means to dispose of unwanted firearms which if laying around could end up in the wrong hands."

The police department announced the turn-in program, which will be held May 5, last Friday, and a number of commenters on the police department's Facebook post derided it, calling it everything from "stupid" to comparing it to actions in Nazi Germany.

Scott Bach, executive director of the Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs, ripped the program as well, according to the Asbury Park Press, calling it "insidious because it's trying to convince people that they're at risk for the mere possession of a firearm."

It's not about mere possession, Riccio said: there have been 36 firearms reported stolen in Brick Township in the last five years.

"A gun that is turned in can never be stolen in a burglary and used later in a violent crime, and it can never fall into the hands of a curious child and cause the death of that child, a friend, or some other innocent person," the Facebook post announcing the program said.

Riccio said the program was prompted primarily because the department receives phone calls about what can be done with firearms that aren't wanted, often from family members cleaning out a relative's home after they've died.

"Usually it's from family members who come across guns that they have no interest in keeping for themselves and are looking for a way of safely disposing of them," Riccio said. "We usually will have them turn them into us and we will dispose of them."

And the guns do get destroyed, both Riccio and Al Della Fave of the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office said.

"Definitely no gun ending up in anyone's private collection," Della Fave said, in response to a statement by Bach in the APP.com report that said firearms turned in at events wind up in the private collections of police officers.

"This program is simply being done to provide a convenient way to get rid of unwanted guns and all guns turned in will be destroyed — end of story," Della Fave said.

Riccio said it was never intended to be a buy-back program, where authorities offer payments for each firearm turned in, no questions asked, as a means of getting firearms off the streets. And he said police have no illusions about who might participate in Brick's turn-in program, which requires identification.

"We never for a moment thought that criminals would be lining up to turn over firearms," he said.

"We are just offering a means for people to dispose of unwanted firearms, plain and simple," Riccio said.

"No hidden agendas/blaring anti-gun messages here, no one being forced to comply," Della Fave said.

The program is scheduled for 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on May 5 at the Brick Township Police Department at 401 Chambersbridge Road. Anyone bringing a firearm to turn in needs to transport it unloaded in a closed, fastened case, in a gun box or in a securely tied package, and locked in the trunk of your car during transit, police said.

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