Want to get rid of your guns? KCPD offers a safe, voluntary way to do so
Kansas Citians aren’t strangers to gun-violence.
Whether it be losing family members and friends, or seeing the yellow crime tape block off parts of a neighborhood, many lives in the city have been dramatically altered by the presence of firearms.
“The problem with gun-violence, fundamentally, is that there are too many d**n guns on the streets of Kansas City and in Missouri and Kansas,” Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas told The Star.
Lucas wants to highlight a less known option offered by the Kansas City Police Department, allowing people to voluntarily drop-off firearms at any of the six patrol division stations.
Though this option has been around for years, Lucas was only recently made aware of it through “casual conversations” and in past City Council meetings discussing domestic violence offenders turning in firearms.
“I think that goes to show we need to make it clearer,” he said. “This is nothing to be ashamed of and I hope that the reason its been quiet in the past isn’t because some people don’t want the department in the gun debate.”
Lucas feels that the firearm disposal option through KCPD has nothing to do with debating guns.
“It has everything to do with making our community safe,” Lucas said. “Whatever we can do to get guns —particularly those that aren’t being used in any way, regularly— out of public realm, away from being stolen from houses, stolen from cars, the better off we will be.”
The process of turning in an unwanted firearm is relatively simple.
Once at one of the six stations, “we recommend they place the firearm in their trunk or vehicle with the firearm unloaded if they are familiar with the firearm and can do so safely prior to driving to the station. If they are not able to unload the firearm safely, they can wait for officers to do so if they feel more comfortable with that,” Officer Donna Drake with KCPD wrote in an email to The Star.
“Either way, they should leave the firearm secured in their vehicle and not take it into the station with them,” Drake wrote. “Once inside the station, they can advise the clerk they are there to turn in a firearm and the clerk will have an officer respond to recover the weapon.”
Individuals within the city limits of Kansas City can also call the KCPD non-emergency line at (816)-234-5111, to have a firearm picked up by an officer.
In both cases, “officers have to take a report when they recover any property which includes documenting the reporting party,” Drake wrote.
“Once turned in, the firearm is held for 40 days and then processed for disposal,” Sergeant Jake Becchina with KCPD wrote in an email to The Star. “Disposal involves destroying the firearm.”
There have been 125 homicides in the Kansas City metro area this year, as of July 7. Most involved firearms.
In 2021, there were 244 homicides in the metro area. In 2020, there were 269 homicides.
“We’ve got too many guns on the streets of Kansas City, with incredibly easy access to them,” Lucas said. “This is why I think we need to use every tool and this is just one of them.”
This story was originally published July 8, 2022 at 3:02 PM.
