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Over 360 guns are collected in Winston-Salem buyback event

An officer checks in a gun at Saturday's buyback event. Image courtesy: WSPD

Officials say that a recent gun buyback event in Winston-Salem was an overwhelming success.

The Winston-Salem Police Department says over 360 guns were collected in two hours during the buyback program on Saturday.

The drive-thru event was part of a multi-tiered effort to combat a recent increase in gun violence.

According to a city news release, the promise of cash for guns resulted in the collection of 252 handguns, 108 long guns, and seven semiautomatic rifles. None of the collected guns had been reported stolen.

Winston-Salem City Council had allocated $50,000 in federal pandemic relief funding for the gun buyback program.

The event was hosted in partnership with Northeast Ward Councilmember Barbara Hanes Burke. Burke released a statement thanking the community for coming together and partnering with law enforcement to address the gun violence issue. Burke said that due to the overwhelming response, she has requested a follow-up event.

Winston-Salem Police Chief Catrina Thompson noted that there have been over 30 homicides in the city this year.

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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