News release from the SPARC Foundation:
On Saturday, Dec. 9, the P.E.A.C.E. Team is partnering with the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Department for a free community event. The Family Day of Action and Remembrance will be held at KL Training Impact Center at 3 Hunt Hill Place in Asheville from 1 until 5 p.m. The gun buyback ends at 3 p.m.
The P.E.A.C.E. Team (Providing Education and Advocacy through Community Engagement) is comprised of Community Health Workers specializing in violence prevention from three longtime Asheville nonprofit agencies: YTL, My Daddy Taught Me That, and the SPARC Foundation. Members will meet with the community to share resources, fun family activities and to raise awareness of local violence prevention initiatives. Members of the Sheriff’s Department will run the no-questioned-asked gun buyback and compensate residents turning in operative firearms with gift cards: $100 for handguns, $150 for rifles, and $200 for semiautomatic weapons.
This time of year is incredibly challenging and painful for families who have lost loved ones to gun violence. The P.E.A.C.E. Team and community members will end the event with conversation and a candlelight vigil of remembrance to honor the lost, support those grieving, and offer hope and healing as we work together to take guns off our streets and find healthy ways of solving grievances.
Firearms are now the leading cause of death for American children and teens. Gun violence is a public health crisis that requires this type of comprehensive solution. The gun buyback is a vital community safety initiative that helps gun owners dispose of unwanted and/or unsecured guns to help reduce the risk of homicides, suicides, unintentional shootings, and domestic violence, and it helps keep guns from getting into the wrong hands.
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