New York Gun Buyback Comes to Binghamton

New York’s gun buyback program is coming to Binghamton this weekend.   

Attorney General Letitia James’ office says a community gun buyback with the Binghamton Police Department is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, October 16 at Saint Mary’s Recreation Center at 152 to 156 Hawley Street.   

The state is paying $250 per assault rifle, $150 per handgun, $75 per rifle or shotgun, $25 per non-working or antique gun, up to $100 for those untraceable “ghost guns” that don’t have serial numbers and up to $25 per homemade gun, 3D-printed gun or gun part. 

The Office of the Attorney General provides the payments in the form of prepaid gift cards when a gun is received and secured by the law enforcement officers on site. 

The office is accepting both working and non-working firearms and there is no limit on the number of firearms an individual can turn in. 

The guns must be transported to the drop-off site unloaded, in the trunk of the vehicle, in a plastic or paper bag or a box.   

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The buyback is an amnesty program and no questions will be asked about the person dropping off the gun. 

A new stipulation, not mentioned in the news release this week from James’ office is that the guns being returned must be capable of being fired more than once. 

That comes after an unidentified man from West Virginia traveled to a buyback in Utica in August and sold 60 3D printed ghost gun parts, getting $2,100 in gift cards to, according to him, send a message that buybacks are “stupid” and the people running them are “horribly uneducated about guns, gun crime and the laws surrounding the regulation of guns” especially in the era of printable weapons.