Headline Surfer photo / Nearly five dozen handguns have been taken off the streets of Volusia County in the 2013 Kicks 4 Guns program and that's exciting news to Sheriff Ben Johnson.
DELAND -- One of the handguns that had been reported stolen to a local police department in 2011, turned up in an annual turn-in-your-gun program with no questions asked.
And that was all Volusia County Sheriff Ben Johnson had to hear to make his day on Aug. 22, when 58 guns were voluntarily turned in to the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office in the annual Kicks 4 Guns crime-fighting program, which encourages citizens to turn in unwanted guns to law enforcement for safe and proper disposal with no questions asked.
The gun amnesty program comes in at No. 88 in the Headline Surfer® countown of the Top 100 Stories of 2013.
This was the fourth year that the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office has participated in the program, and nobody is more pleased with the results than the county's top cop.
“The public’s response to this annual event was extremely positive,” Johnson told Headline Surfer®. “This is a grass-roots program that makes us all a little safer. That’s 58 unwanted guns that have been taken out of circulation so that they can’t fall into the wrong hands, be used to facilitate a crime or result in an accidental death or injury.”
Headline Surfer photo / Volusia County Sheriff Ben Jonson on 'Kicks 4 Guns' program'
“The public’s response to this annual event was extremely positive,” Sheriff Ben Johnson told Headline Surfer. “This is a grass-roots program that makes us all a little safer. That’s 58 unwanted guns that have been taken out of circulation so that they can’t fall into the wrong hands, be used to facilitate a crime or result in an accidental death or injury.”
The Sheriff’s Office’s event, one of two in Volusia County and more than a dozen around Central Florid , was held at the Volusia County Fairgrounds in DeLand. Residents who turned in their guns to the Sheriff’s Office during the 12-hour event received a $50 Walmart gift card.
The gift cards were purchased with money seized in criminal cases. Most of the turned-in weapons were handguns, with a handful of rifles and a few unusual items mixed in -- including a pen gun and a sawed-off shotgun.
The handgun reported stolen to the DeLand police force in 2011, also was among the firearms turned in.
Counting 'em down: Headline Surfer® Ranking of the Top 100 Stories of 2013
RECAP:
88. Sheriff: Nearly 5 dozen guns turned in during one-day amnesty at DeLand fairgrounds
89. Daytona State College foreign-languages chair honored
90. Daytona Beach cops: Pedestrian struck & killed by motorist trying to cross ISB two days before Thanksgiving
91. Orange City man sentenced to prison for shooting own brother
92. Seminole County Sheriff's helicopter looks for nighttime prowler in Lake Mary
93. Ponce Inlet turns to 'CodeRed' for mass alerts
94. DeLand man, 60, sentenced to life in prison for sexually battering 11-year-old boy
95. Volusia County GOP leader Tony Ledbetter named to key Florida Republican post
96. New Smyrna cop shop has first father-son on force.jpg){kind=small}
97. Baltimore Ravens LB Ray Lewis waves green flag to start 2013 Daytona 500
98. Governor pays respects to 82-year-old Congressman in Orlando
99. New Smyrna Beach cops: Kind donation made for daughter of hit and run victim
100. VCSO: $9,000 worth of cigarettes stolen from DeBary convenience store in September