(Source: MIRS.news Published 12/13/2023) St. David’s Episcopal Church in Southfield has called for city, county and state authorities to stop a recent citizen-led donation of firearms from going to a gun disposal company profiting from them.
The request, made by St. David’s rector and gun buyback organizer Rev. Chris Yaw, was in response to a New York Times Article by Mike McIntire. The article detailed how the private gun collection company GunBusters partners with the Michigan State Police (MSP) and other agencies to dispose of weapons, but only destroys a portion of the firearms, reselling the rest.
Shanon Banner, MSP’s director of the communications and outreach division, said the MSP began utilizing GunBusters in Jan. 2020, and has disposed of 11,582 firearms so far this year.
Prior to this, the MSP disposed of surrendered firearms in foundries, but it became increasingly hard to find foundries that could be used, and there was concern about the environmental impact of melting plastics and polymers.” she said.
GunBusters does not charge the MSP for its services, but does charge for complete gun destruction.
That information shed new light on Saturday’s gun buyback, which was held at the church in Southfield and brought in a preliminary tally of 224 guns, including 133 handguns and 87 long guns, in exchange for nearly $19,000 given away in gift cards.
Yaw said the programs work by incentivizing citizens to bring in firearms to be destroyed. The first buyback was held in October 2022 in partnership with the Oakland County Board of Commissioners and the Southfield Police Department, bringing in 353 guns.
A similar program at St. David’s 14 months ago took in 117 guns as part of a countywide, four-location buyback.
Yaw said the idea first came after the Oxford and Michigan State University (MSU) shootings. His congregation wanted to raise awareness about gun deaths.
Yaw compiled monthly data on Oakland County gun deaths and created a symbolic “graveyard” in the church backyard, without names but with ages, cities and dates.
As churchgoers continued to come throughout the year, they saw it grow, he said, and based on the color-coded system, nearly 75% of the deaths were suicides and children.
Through conversations with the area’s police chief, they agreed to hold a buyback at the church, intended to alleviate stress on those who could be hesitant to show up to a police station with a gun.
Yaw said he had a line almost two miles long outside his church. Last Saturday, there was a line of 100 cars before they opened.
He said it’s wrong that people who purposely came to the church to see guns destroyed will now only get them recycled.
“Therefore, today we are sending letters to our city, county and state authorities asking them to hold onto these weapons until arrangements can be made for them to be completely destroyed,” he said. “People donated these guns to make our community safer, not to make a corporation richer.”
Banner said MSP is “committed to upholding Michigan’s recently updated gun violence prevention laws and to getting illegal guns off the streets, so they cannot be used in a commission of a crime.”
She said all firearms surrendered to the MSP are turned over to GunBusters to be destroyed in accordance with the ATF’s acceptable destruction procedures that require the destruction of the frame or receiver, so the firearm can no longer be used.
“We receive video proof of this occurring for every firearm,” she said, adding that “the MSP is among 950 agencies from across the country that utilize GunBusters’ services.”
Buyback programs are not trying to get guns from criminals, Yaw said, but trying to get them out of homes to stop accidental child deaths and reduce instances of suicide by firearm.
Yaw said this is a sentiment echoed across his community. At several buyback events, he said there have been “protesters” trying to purchase the guns with cash, wanting to keep them on the market.
They got maybe two people out of the 100 in line, he said, adding that he’s not part of what some have called the “confiscation conspiracy," and respects hunters and collectors who know what to do with their firearms.
He suggested a caveat, that when people donate guns for a buyback program, they will be slated for destruction and not reuse.
Yaw said he’s had conversations with legislators who agree with him, and wouldn’t be surprised if there’s action taken in the future.
Rep. Felicia Brabec (D-Ann Arbor), chair of the Michigan Firearm Safety and Violence Prevention Caucus, said when she learned about the MSP’s practice, “I was very troubled.”
When the average person hears about guns being destroyed, it's a reasonable assumption that those weapons are no longer in circulation, she said.
Brabec said conversations have been ongoing with Attorney General Dana Nessel, national and state gun violence prevention chapters, Appropriations subcommittee on Military and Veteran Affairs and State Police Chair Jason Morgan (D-Ann Arbor) and MSP.
She said they are “trying to be very solution-focused about this,” and the caucus is looking at legislation dealing with ghost guns and shoring up parameters surrounding buyback programs.
With MSP in mind, she said there have been conversations about the cost of having weapons destroyed in their entirety, and what a legislative appropriation would look like, as well as if there are alternative options.
We’re trying to make connections with folks beyond the Violence Prevention Caucus, she said.
Yaw said he’s confident buyback programs will see change, even if he has to get a license “and pulverize them myself.”
