Gun owners trade in the firepower

Those swapping weapons for shoes or gift certificates are mostly older and middle class.

By S.I. ROSENBAUM, Times Staff Writer
Published July 29, 2007

TAMPA - For years, the gun lay wrapped in a towel on the top shelf of France Newkirk's linen closet.

That was where her husband put it before he died. That was where it stayed.

When she moved to University Village, a senior living community, she took the gun with her and put it in her new linen closet.

"I just thought that's where it's supposed to be," the 89-year-old grandmother said.

On Saturday, however, Newkirk turned her pistol in to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. In exchange, she got a pair of Nike Shox sneakers worth about $100.

"I do a lot of walking," she explained as a deputy fit the shoes on her feet and tied the laces.

Mrs. Newkirk might not have been the person the Sheriff's Office had in mind when it conceived the guns-for-sneakers event, held Saturday at the University Area Community Center on N 22nd Street.

The event was meant to take in guns that might otherwise be used in street crimes. But by afternoon, the trickle of residents coming to turn in guns were mostly middle-class, older people.

"I have two grandsons. I did not want a gun available to them," said Tom Clark, 63, of New Tampa, as he handed in his 9 mm Luger.

He'd had the gun since he was a second lieutenant in the Army in 1963. "I've hauled it around the world with me," he said, "but I don't think I've fired it in 40 years."

Jim Dobson, 53, turned in four antique rifles. Instead of sneakers, he claimed a gift certificate.

Inside the Sheriff's Office's mobile command unit, volunteer and T. Kelly lovingly handled one of Dobson's rifles.

Made around 1900, it's a collector's item, he said. Like all the guns turned in on Saturday, it will be melted down.

There's no alternative, he said, even if the gun is valuable as an antique. "If someone was walking across here with a Sharps buffalo rifle, I'd tell them to turn around and go somewhere else," he said.

Does the buyback really help combat crime? Kelly thinks so -- but only indirectly. "If they're not being used for target purposes or sporting purposes, they're sitting around the house, and they could be stolen and used for criminal purposes," he said.

Around 1 p.m., the mobile command center's white board recorded the day's tally thus far: guns -- 15; BB guns -- three.

S.I. Rosenbaum can be reached at 661-2442 or srosenbaum@sptimes.com.

[Last modified July 28, 2007, 22:58:29]