Fifty dollars for a gun.
One hundred for a shotgun.
One hundred and fifty for an assault or high-impact rifle.
Those are the rewards offered to Miamians for voluntarily turning in their guns.
It is not just any disarmament program.
The authorities, in reality, sought to kill two birds with one stone: to remove the rifles from the streets of the city and send as many as possible to the war front in Ukraine, which has been resisting the Russian invasion for four months.
“It was a resounding success,” says Ken Russell, the councilor who promoted
Guns4Ukraine
, literally guns for Ukraine, which in just four hours collected 69 rifles in exchange for just over $4,000 in gift cards.
In a country where there are more guns than people, the initiative became a national news that did not sit well in several conservative circles and sparked all kinds of conspiracy theories and threats against the organizers.
“Police are reviewing several of the posts that were made on social media because some of them were quite explicit,” says Russell.
It all started as a more modest idea.
A couple of weeks ago, the Miami Police were thinking of making a donation of bulletproof vests and helmets for the Ukrainian Army.
“And why don't we send them weapons as well?” asked Russell, who sits on the city commission, a local body that handles various administrative matters.
"We can't," the police chief replied.
“Legally, as a city we cannot send weapons to another country,” he explained.
“Honestly, the idea of a city sending weapons to a war seems a bit crazy.
What answers these questions?
"It's definitely a different idea.
The move that rankles America's most die-hard right wing may also surprise some observers abroad, who might think, "Wow, another act of interventionism" under the banner of American exceptionalism.
Beyond the ideologies and the debates between the line that separates international support from mercenarism, there are laws that prohibit such a shipment.
The authorities, however, found a way to turn them around and looked for a private company that could act as an intermediary and triangulate the donations.
The Miami City Council collects the weapons, passes them on to the company and that third party sends them to the battlefield.
"It's a good idea, it could work, although it has never been done," said the police chief.
all
right
”, replied Russell, who promoted local legislation, requested the approval of the State Department and a few days later launched the call.
OPERATION: GUNS 4 UKRAINE was a total success.
69 guns were dropped off at @CityofMiami City Hall today.
pic.twitter.com/IkGjvwBf84
— Ken Russell (@kenforflorida) June 18, 2022
"No questions asked."
That was the promise made by the City Council to encourage the largest number of people to participate.
Authorities weren't interested in knowing who turned in the weapons or why, though they did check the serial number to make sure they hadn't been used in a crime or stolen.
It was not the first disarmament program Russell participated in in Florida.
In 2018, after the shooting that took place in Parkland, in the Miami metropolitan area, around 380 weapons were collected.
Behind every gun, however, there is a story.
Of the 69 weapons that were received, more than twenty were delivered by a single person.
"No questions asked."
The man explained that he had had them for a long time, some were World War II antiques and others were old carbines.
Another woman, the wife of a war veteran now battling Alzheimer's, drove for three hours to dispose of three other weapons after having several dangerous incidents with him.
One more wanted to keep her young children away from some guns that she left her ex-husband at home after the divorce.
So far this year there have been 279 shootings in the United States that have left 312 dead and more than 1,100 injured, according to the organization Gun Violence Archive.
Fourteen have been in Florida, the third state with the highest number of fatalities from weapons in the country in absolute terms, according to annual figures from health authorities.
"I think we have a crisis that is out of control," says Russell, who is running for a Democratic nomination for Congress in November's election.
“Americans have the right to have guns, but there are a lot of people who shouldn't have access, people who try to commit crimes, people with mental problems who can be a danger to themselves and others, they are too easy to get, even for young people," he says.
The other issue that is in the sights of US lawmakers is the availability of high-impact weapons, especially in light of tragedies like the one in the Texas city of Uvalde, where 19 children and two teachers were murdered.
In Miami, an Uzi rifle and a few AK-47s and AR-15s were collected last weekend, the rifle that has been behind massacres such as the one at Sandy Hook Elementary (Connecticut, 2012, 26 dead), a gay nightclub in Orlando (Florida, 2016, 49 dead) and a concert in Las Vegas (Nevada, 2017, 58 dead and more than 500 injured).
"I don't think this initiative changes much of anything, but it does at least take some guns out of the hands of killers," says Robert Goffe, a 59-year-old resident.
Natalie de la Gandara, a 30-year-old, does not believe that the idea is effective for Miami or Ukraine: "Weapons do not solve anything, they only create more problems."
Luis Zambrano, 38, concedes that the plan is controversial, but considers that it is more important to help the Ukrainian troops: "People should hand over their weapons with or without war and, since they do it, at least it will do some good." ”.
On the Internet, opinions are more daring than on the street and criticism is more elemental.
Some of the most common comments: "What do we care about Ukraine?", "Why do they give weapons to the Ukrainians and not to the Americans?"
and "Taking up our weapons is the first step of the Government and the left to control us."
Still, the Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the right to bear arms in public.
At the same time, bipartisan efforts to implement tougher purchase restrictions have made progress, with a new law passing the Senate this week.
― Did you lose votes by promoting this initiative?
― No, I think that anyway those people would not vote for me.
“When the supporters of the Second Amendment and the National Rifle Association began the attacks on social networks, many people who were in favor preferred to remain silent because it is a somewhat dangerous topic of discussion, with very heated debates in which it is very difficult to come to logical conclusions,” says Russell.
The politician says he is proud of the disarmament program, although he recognizes that its scope is limited.
"Maybe we've prevented one of these weapons from falling into the wrong hands and we've been able to save a life," he says.
“But when you compare it to the number of guns in our city, our state, our country, and crimes that are committed on a daily basis, with shootings, 69 guns off the streets is not going to solve the problem,” he admits.
"To say otherwise would be a political pantomime."
It is not yet defined how many weapons will be useful for the war and how many will be destroyed, the specific destination or the date to send them to Ukraine, along with cartridges that were also delivered, as well as the helmets and vests that were originally going to be sent.
Despite setbacks and criticism, Russell wants the initiative to be replicated in other parts of the country.
“If every police department adopted it or even 10 other major city police forces did the same, it would mean hundreds of guns off the streets and hundreds of guns for Ukraine where they are needed,” says Russell.
"It can make a difference, even a small one, but a difference nonetheless."
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