Morris Co. Holding Its 1st Gun Buyback Programs In Nearly 10 Years

Josh Bakan
Updated ·3 min read

PARSIPPANY, NJ — Got guns? Morris County will hold its first "Guns for Cash" events in nearly a decade, offering up to $300 for each firearm.

New Jersey residents can turn in firearms with "no questions asked." Police officers at each buyback location will collect and secure the guns. Anyone, including minors, can turn in up to three weapons without disclosing names or other personal information.

"Collected firearms will be documented, transported to a secure location and appropriately disposed of," Meghan Knab, a Morris County Prosecutor's Office spokesperson, told Patch.

The events will run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on:

  • May 14: Budd Lake Fire Department (378 Route 46, Budd Lake)

  • May 15: Parsippany Police Athletic League (PAL) Building (33 Baldwin Rd., Parsippany)

Morris County last held a gun buyback program in March 2013 — months after the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre that inspired similar buyback programs in communities throughout the nation. At Morris County's last event, people surrendered 600 weapons for a total payout of $49,550.

The Morris County Gun Buy Back Amnesty Program received $60,000 in funding — $20,000 of which come from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA), a federal coronavirus-relief bill signed into law in March of last year. Here are the program's funding sources, according to the Morris County Prosecutor's Office:

  • Morris County Commissioners (county ARPA funds), $20,000

  • Morris County Crimestoppers Commission, $10,000

  • Morris County Prosecutor's Office (County Law Enforcement Trust Account), $20,000

  • New Jersey Office of the Attorney General ($10,000)

"This program is designed to prevent unwanted firearms in Morris County households from landing on the street," said Morris County Commissioner Douglas Cabana, the board liaison to Law and Public Safety. "The aim is public safety, and it is a suitable use of American Rescue Plan Act funding obtained by the county."

The prosecutor's office asked those surrendering firearms to wrap them in plastic or put them in boxes.

Morris County had New Jersey's lowest gun-death rate from 2010-19, averaging 2.01 gun deaths per 100,000 people per year, according to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. Conversely, Essex County, which borders Morris County, led the state with 13.1 gun deaths per 100,000 people annually in the decade.

Gun Buybacks: Do They Work?

Gun buybacks take weapons out of circulation — sometimes, hundreds of weapons. New Jersey residents turned in 941 firearms at gun buyback events last August in Atlantic City, East Orange, Paterson and Newark. New Jersey law enforcement then collected more than 2,800 at buyback stations throughout the state last October.

"Like any preventative measure, we’ll never know exactly how many lives were saved as a result of this effort," said then-Acting Attorney General Andrew Bruck. "But I have no doubt in my mind that lives were saved."

But research suggests buybacks might not have much effect in reducing gun violence. A report from the National Bureau of Economic Research — a nonprofit that conducts economic research — found "no evidence" that buyback programs curb gun crime.

"Given our estimated null findings, with 95 percent confidence, we can rule out decreases in firearm-related crime of greater than 1.3 percent during the year following a buyback," says the report, which was released in May. "Using data from the National Vital Statistics System, we also find no evidence that GBPs reduce suicides or homicides where a firearm was involved."

But some supporters argue that violent-crime rates aren't the best measure of the efficacy of buybacks. Community engagement and education on gun safety may be the greatest benefits, according to Garen Winmute, director of the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California, Davis.

"They have intangible value that we have really been underestimating," Winmute told Governing in 2013. "They never will reduce rates of violent crime, but that may have been the wrong parameter to look at."

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Morris Co. Holding Its 1st Gun Buyback Programs In Nearly 10 Years originally appeared on the Parsippany Patch