Mayor Anthony A. Williams today joined District and federal law enforcement leaders in hailing the District's recent gun buyback program as a huge success that will help bring about safer homes and neighborhoods.

A total of 2,306 firearms were turned in to Metropolitan Police on Monday and Tuesday, as part of Operation Gun Tip, a citywide initiative to remove illegal guns from the city's streets. Earlier this month, an additional 602 weapons were turned in at the 6th Police District in a separate program, for a total of 2,908 guns turned in to police this month. That exceeds by nearly 20 percent the total number of weapons recovered by District police in all of 1998.

Mayor Williams joined Executive Assistant Police Chief Terrance W. Gainer and Tim Hynes, Special Agent in Charge of the Washington Field Division of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms today in displaying some of the firearms that were turned in and discussing next steps in the District's ongoing efforts to reduce gun violence.

Gainer said all of the weapons will be catalogued and test-fired by the MPDC's Firearms Identification Unit, to see if they can be matched with firearms that were previously used in crimes in the District of Columbia. In addition, Hynes announced that the ATF will conduct a thorough trace of each of the weapons and prepare a report, within 90 days, analyzing the source of the weapons and their histories. Gainer said this information will be invaluable to District officials in identifying the sources of illegal firearms coming into the District and gun trafficking patterns.

Those weapons not matched with ongoing criminal investigations will be taken to a local foundry and melted down.

Mayor Williams and Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey have expressed support for making this type of gun buyback program an annual event. Both pledged to work with local, federal and community leaders to secure funding for the initiative in future years.

"Each handgun that is removed from our streets and our homes represents a life that is potentially saved or a serious injury that can be prevented," the Chief said. "When you multiply that by the hundreds and hundreds of firearms that were turned as part of this program, the impact on the safety of our families and our communities is really quite dramatic."

This week's program, which paid residents $100 for every functioning firearm they turned in to one of the seven district stations in the District of Columbia, was funded through assets forfeited by drug dealers. The earlier program in the 6th District was funded in part by money provided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The organizer of that program, Officer Andre Wright of the Sixth District, was presented with an official Department commendation today by Mayor Williams and Executive Assistant Chief Gainer.

Gainer emphasized that while Operation Gun Tip has concluded, residents who no longer want firearms in their homes can still turn in weapons any day of the year at any police district station. Individuals will not be compensated, nor will they be prosecuted for the offense of possessing a firearm.

Following are the number of firearms turned in at each district station over the last two days: