Jacksonville, Florida

Jacksonville, Florida’s Latest Gun Buyback

I was reading the Sunday Times-Union newspaper when I came across a couple of things. In one column Frank Denton described Nicholai Vitti’s (Jacksonville school superintendent) Promising Efforts to Help Youths, especially young black males whose faces appear in disproportionate numbers in the Law and Disorderly section of the paper. In another column I read about the Jacksonville’s latest Gun Buyback event in which 539 guns were taken off the street. I was interested because I’d been wondering where the money to buy back the guns actually comes from, for this event $15,000. This time the money came from The Delores Barr Weaver Fund, The Community Foundation of Northeast Florida, and the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce. Thinking about gun violence that has plagued our country Delores Weaver, a longtime Jacksonville patron and philanthropist and former Jacksonville Jaguars owner, said, “I will not forget. I will do something.” And she has. There was also a group of private gun buyers and representatives of a Florida gun rights organization, Florida Carry, nearly blocking the parking lot exit calling out to the people bringing the guns to the Elks Lodge where the buyback was located in an effort to entice them to sell the guns to them instead of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. It seems like both sides of the gun debate are alive and well in Jacksonville, Florida, even if the victims of gun violence aren't.