Bilal Qayyum and Father Eric Hungerford, both to the right of center, at the gun buyback on August 3.
Photo courtesy of Bilal Qayyum
By Constance Garcia-Barrio
You would think that pastors and pistols don’t mix, but it was proved otherwise at the August 3 gun buyback at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Germantown. Participants received $200 in gift cards for every working gun turned in — no questions asked.
Guns were laid down and prayers of thanks went up, as well as into pockets. Everyone was able to receive a small “pocket prayer quilt” to remind them to pray for peace.
Several churches partnered in the event.
Images of the pocket prayer quilts. One side of each packet has an explanation of what the quilt is while the other has the tiny cross.
“We’re involved in the gun buyback because we love the city,” said Eric Hungerford, rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Chestnut Hill, a co-sponsor.
Guns affect the whole city, including Chestnut Hill, despite its reputation as an enclave of wealth and quiet, he pointed out.
“There was a murder/suicide in the parking lot behind the church about one year and a half ago,” Hungerford said. “I wish more churches would recognize the Christian commitment to nonviolence and embody it through action.”
Firearms flooded in on Saturday morning. Miss Betty, 80, a Logan resident, handed over a pistol to the police.
“I brought in this gun because I was scared to death with it in my house,” she said. “It belonged to my husband, and he passed away. I don’t even know how to fire it.”
Miss Betty canceled a favorite activity so that she could have peace of mind.
“I skipped choir practice to come here,” she said.
Bilal Qayyum, an organizer of the buyback and president of the Father’s Day Rally Committee, an organization that promotes a positive image of Black and Latino males with a focus on fatherhood, said that many women like Miss Betty turn in guns.
“They are mothers and grandmothers who are raising children and don’t want guns in the house,” he said.
Qayyum has organized gun buybacks “for at least 15 years.” He partnered with St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Tasker Street Baptist Church, and Councilmember Cindy Bass (D-8th Dist.) for this event.
Dave from West Philly had a somewhat different background from Miss Betty.
Cornelius Pitts, PharmD., at the gun buyback.
Photo credit: Constance Garcia-Barrio
“I’m a Vietnam vet,” he said. “The last time I had a firearm was in the war. I found the gun in my [late] mother’s house.”
He had been “waiting and waiting” for a buyback, he said, so when he heard about this one on television, he jumped on it. “I feel so relieved now that I’ve turned it in.”
The police follow a protocol with the guns they receive.
“We check to make sure that the guns aren’t stolen and that they weren’t used to commit a crime,” said Malachi Jones, captain of the Evidence Control Unit of the Philadelphia Police Department. “If the guns haven’t been involved with the issues mentioned, they are destroyed.”
Another policeman recalled what could have resulted in a tragic incident at the previous St. Luke’s buyback. A husband and wife came to the event, then began arguing about whether to give up their gun.
“When they finally handed it over, we found that the gun was loaded,” the officer said.
On another occasion, a woman brought in a handgun that she discovered in a flowerpot in her garden, the policeman recalled. Someone might have used it in a crime, then hidden it there, he said.
Cornelius Pitts, PharmD., owner of Miriam Medical Clinics in South Philadelphia, which treats diabetes and hypertension, among other illnesses, said that he was attending the buyback because guns affect many of his patients.
“I don’t believe in owning a gun, but some of my patients have guns or have been affected by them,” he said. “I recently visited a patient in her home. She was diagnosed with kidney cancer and lung cancer. The lung cancer is in remission, but she smokes a pack of cigarettes a day.”
She told Pitts that she knows smoking may shorten her life, but she smokes to relieve stress from hearing gunshots in her neighborhood. Her son was shot and wounded some time ago, and her nephew was shot and killed, Pitts said.
Pitts discusses gun violence at the Center for Urban Bioethics in Temple University’s Katz School of Medicine, where he teaches.
“I want to sensitize students to gun violence and inspire them to do research that can help solve the problem,” he said.
Mary Rivera, a grandmother, a member of the Gun Committee for the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania, and a member of CeaseFirePA, a nonprofit devoted to advocacy and education to reduce gun violence, also took part last Saturday. She grew up with guns in the house, she said, explaining that family members used to go hunting and sometimes did target practice.
“My dad put me in gun safety classes for children,” Rivera said, who was collecting signatures on a CeaseFirePA petition. “I raised three children with guns in the house. The guns had locks on them, and they were in a locked cabinet and the bullets were stored somewhere else.”
Rivera feels that the buyback could save people from being shot. Advocating for gun safety may be saving her life in another way as well.
“I have cancer,” she said. “The doctors gave me five weeks to live. That was two years ago. I still have cancer, but doing this work is helping me to go on living.”
Brother Clayton Dew Andre, who spearheaded last year’s buyback as well as this year’s effort, sees the event as a practical matter of cutting crime and accidents, but also in spiritual terms.
“It’s a part of the church’s ministry to bring in a society that values life, that values God’s creation,” Andre said.
Qayyum said that 118 firearms were collected at the buyback.
“That means 118 fewer weapons that can be used to commit a crime,” he said, and spoke of the recent mass shooting at 58th and Girard. “We’ve given out $24,000 in gift cards today.”
The next gun buyback will take place at Tasker Street Baptist Church, 2010 Tasker Street in South Philadelphian on September 14, from 10 a.m. until the gift cards run out.
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