Success in Gun Buyback Program

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - The crime curbing effort has collected over 1,600 guns over the past 2 years and city leaders said this is another successful year.

Mayor Byron Brown said, "We will get anything from long guns rifles, AK-47's, Uzis, so we have gotten those assault weapons."  All those weapons are good for a pre-paid credit card, with assault weapons collecting 100 bucks.

Thomas Holiday said, "I brought in 2 pistols and 1 sawed off shotgun.  I found the pistol in my backyard and I found the sawed off shotgun in my trailer in the middle of winter."

He doesn't know what they were used for but doesn't want them near his home.

"The reason I brought them in is because I have a 9 year old and a stepson that was shot with a handgun, quite a few years ago and he survived," Holiday exclaimed.

Some say that the Gun Buyback Program couldn't come at a better time.

So far there have been more homicides this year than in all of last year.

One innocent bystander was caught in crossfire as he was sitting outside an apartment building.

61 year-old Larry Crosland died from being struck in the head by a bullet.  Surveillance video shows a passenger holding what appears to be a gun but the suspect has not been caught.

Vern Zehler says his Riverside neighborhood is not what it used to be, "There was drug raids on both ends of the streets and stuff like that. If we can get this out of the area, maybe we can make it a little safer."

Police said they collected more than 700 guns through Saturday's Gun Buyback Program.