Residents Cash In Guns for Peace of Mind

Maupin said the District is happy to buy guns from its neighbors because guns from across the region are often used to commit crimes in the city.

"A lot of guns from other jurisdictions come into D.C.," Maupin said. "We share the same concerns."

The city paid $100 for assault rifles and automatic and semiautomatic pistols; $50 for revolvers, rifles, shotguns and derringers; and $10 for air, BB and pellet guns. Gun dealers were not permitted to participate.

Before buying them, police checked the guns to make sure they were operable. If not, they kept them, but they would not pay for them.

Officers plan to fire the guns and match them against a database to see if any have been involved in crimes.

Police departments, civic groups and religious organizations around the country occasionally hold gun buyback initiatives in an effort to reduce violent crime.

In the District, police held a guns-for-cash exchange in 1999 and 2000. In 2000, the District spent $250,000 -- half local and half federal money -- and netted 3,362 guns.

Yesterday, several people said the guns they sold to the city were inherited.

Robert Greene sold a .38 Special and a post-World War I Italian derringer. He got the derringer from his late mother, who he said "had it around the house." Greene, 58, who lives in Southeast, said he heard about the program on TV and decided to come in.

Another woman, who declined to give her name, said she was uneasy driving to the District from Wheaton with her late father's shotgun and rifle. She had them wrapped in a quilt, and asked an officer to go to her car to retrieve them because she didn't want to handle them.

The woman said her father, who died two years ago, had lived in the Eastern Shore and used the guns for hunting.

"I didn't want to carry them around," said the woman, 42. "I was nervous all the way over here."

Anyone wanting to get rid of a firearm may take it to any police station. Police only pay for guns during buybacks.