‘Operation Safe Homes’ gun turn-in event coming to Abington

Local police chiefs and Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele recently announced the dates for this year’s “Operation Safe Homes,” a public service to help people get rid of unwanted guns. The gun turn-in event will take place on Wednesday, November 16 from 4:00pm to 8:00pm and Saturday, November 19 from 9:00am to 1:00pm at 1166 Old York Road.

Area residents may turn in unloaded firearms to the Abington Township Police Department during those hours. There is no payment for the guns, and all collected firearms will be destroyed. Bullets, magazines or clips will not be accepted.

“Firearms are now the number one cause of death for children. That is a sickening statistic. Millions of homes have firearms and many of those firearms are loaded and not in a gun safe, but ‘hidden.’ Studies show that children know where the family keeps a firearm,” Steele said. “And with a number of recent shootings and homicides in Montgomery County involving teenagers, as well as social media promoting gun carrying by teens, parents may want to have some tough conversations with their teens and take a look around. We’ll accept those guns, too, and maybe save some lives in the process.”

The event collected 170 unwanted guns in 2018 and 2019, including semi-automatic handguns, revolvers and long guns.

“But let me be very clear: we are not taking guns away from anyone,” Steele said. “This is a community service to any gun-owning resident who has decided to get guns out of their house and permanently off the street. It doesn’t matter what type of firearm—from long guns to pistols—we’ll take them and destroy them by melting them down.”

For questions about the “Operation Safe Home” event, residents can call the Montgomery County Detective Bureau at 610-278-3368.