The Guilford Police Department (GPD) will participate in the third annual Keep Kids Safe Statewide Gun Buyback program on Saturday, Oct. 28 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. There will be cash and gifts exchanged for certain types of firearms, and a limited number of PIN code gun safes will also be given away to anyone with a Connecticut pistol permit.

The GPD, in conjunction with the Ethan Miller Song Foundation, has held this completely voluntary event for the last five years. This year will mark the third year of the event being a statewide program.

According to Chief of Police Christopher Massey, the department has collected more than 475 firearms in the last four years of the event.

“This event not only benefits Guilford, it benefits the entire shoreline and the whole state. This promotes responsible gun ownership and is for individuals who no longer wish to possess certain firearms and provides the opportunity to safely turn them in. It also provides an opportunity to obtain a free gun safe. It is a very valuable gun safety event,” said Massey. “There is a buyback component, obviously, but ultimately, this is a safety event and promoting responsible gun ownership for those who choose to own, and it has been very well attended for the last four years. This is the third year as a statewide event, but we have been doing this with the Song Strong organization for longer than that. This will be our fifth year with them. And we have had great success in the number of weapons turned in.”

Massey emphasized that the event is voluntary for anyone who wishes to take advantage of the opportunity to remove guns from their home.

“This is all about responsibility. This is a valuable service to the community to have this type of event. With an event like this, you sometimes have people who want to misconstrue the intentions of this event and make it something it is not,” said Massey. “This event is simply promoting responsible gun ownership and provides an opportunity to safely turn in a firearm that they no longer wish to have. We are also giving out safes for those who want to be responsible about how they store and secure their firearms. This is not obligatory for any resident. This is not about anything else [other] than responsible gun ownership.”

Kristin Miller Song, who has led the charge for increased gun safety since the traumatic death of her 15-year-old son, Ethan, in a Guilford shooting involving an unsecured firearm in 2018, said she and her family are laser-focused on preventing anyone else from suffering the devastation and horror of an unnecessary gun death.

“After Ethan died...one of the ways to honor Ethan was a buyback event with the safe giveaways, too. I want gun owners to know that I’m not out to take their guns. If you want to own a gun, go for it, but you have to step up and be responsible about it,” said Song. “I can tell you a moment of prevention can save you from a lifetime of just unrelenting pain. Every second of the day, I am thinking about my son Ethan. You do not want to be living this life; it sucks. We were very vigilant parents, and this still happened to our family. You do not want to be in our situation.”

Song said her foundation and the other organizations involved want to promote gun safety. The Song Foundation was integral to the enactment of Ethan’s Law, which was passed with overwhelming bipartisan support from the state legislature in 2019 and mandated proper firearm storage guidelines for any household with a person under the age of 18 or with mental health issues. Since that time, the legislature has enhanced the bill that now makes it mandatory for any Connecticut household, regardless of the age or status of any occupants, to securely store all firearms within a residence.

“I really want to elevate the conversation about this. These gun deaths are preventable, and many gun owners slip into a false sense of security. Parents, anyone, can’t lull themselves into that false sense of security. It really is a no-brainer. These safes save lives. They are not expensive; you can buy these safes anywhere, and they are such a simple way to protect your family,” Song said. “The whole purpose of this is to prevent unsupervised children from accessing firearms. This is the whole point of this event. We need people to understand this is not an attack on gun owners. This is a way for us to show, as a community, how much we love our kids and how much we want to protect them.”

The Connecticut Statewide Gun Buy Back will be held at the GPD at 400 Church Street on Saturday, Oct. 28 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. There will be a limited number of PIN code gun safes available at no charge for anyone with a Connecticut pistol permit.

The event is 100% anonymous. No ID is required, and no questions are asked of anyone attending. All weapons must be transported in the trunk of vehicles.

The event is sponsored by numerous organizations, including the Newtown Action Alliance Foundations, The Ethan Miller Song Foundation, numerous hospitals, and Mothers United against Violence.

The municipalities of Hartford, Meriden, Middletown, Newtown, Norwalk, Stamford, and Waterbury will also be participating via their respective police departments.

For more information, visit www.newtownactionalliancefoundation.org.