Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and a local grocer are offering butter for guns this weekend. The mayor announced the plan at a news conference Wednesday.
Turn in your guns at New All Saints Roman Catholic Church on Liberty Heights Avenue in Howard Park Saturday and get a $100 gift card for the Klein’s Shop Rite that will open a block away July 31.
“We are asking people to surrender violence as they surrender their firearms for an opportunity for a more positive future,” said Rawlings-Blake. The guns that are turned in will be off the streets and out of the hands of criminals, she added.
Marshall Klein, chief operating officer of Klein’s Family Markets, said the company viewed the plan as an opportunity to support the neighborhoods the new Northwest Baltimore store will serve.
“We want to show our commitment to the needs of the community and the priorities of the community and the mayor and the city council,” Klein said. He added that his company wanted to do their part to help stem violence in the city.
The company sponsored a similar gun buyback program in December 2012. More than 450 guns were turned in at the event at St. Paul’s Baptist Church in Northeast Baltimore. Klein predicted they will beat that number this weekend.