11:27
Brief

(Image via The Philadelphia Tribune)
By Michael D’Onofrio
PHILADELPHIA — Get rid of your gun this weekend and get paid for it.
City officials and community stakeholders will hold a gun buy-back on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Yesha Ministries, 2301 Snyder Ave. and Greater Exodus Baptist Church, 704 North Broad St.
Individuals can turn in working handguns or semi-automatic firearms in order to receive a $100 gift certificate to Brown’s ShopRite stores in the city.
The gun buy-back comes after a massive spike in homicides in Philadelphia last year, when 499 killings were reported, marking a 30-year high.
As of Tuesday, the city had 27 homicides, down 4 percent from that time last year.
The gun buy-back is put on by the Philadelphia City Council, the Father’s Day Rally Committee, the Greenfield Foundation, Brown’s ShopRite Markets, the Philadelphia police Department, and community anti-violence leaders.
Funding for the gift certificates was provided by the Greenfield Foundation.
Michael D’Onofrio is a reporter for the Philadelphia Tribune, where this story first appeared.
Our stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. We ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our web site. Please see our republishing guidelines for use of photos and graphics.