BALTIMORE — The Archdiocese of Baltimore is preparing to host its fourth gun buyback event next month in Southwest Baltimore.

Gun owners can bring firearms to the Westside Shopping Center, near the Carrollton Ridge and Millhill neighborhoods, on Aug. 8 and receive between $100 and $300 if the firearm is in working order, according to a news release.

The event will run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the shopping center parking lot, and Baltimore Police officers will help ensure the weapons are returned safely and legally, church officials said. As with past events and similar efforts across the country, there will be no questions asked.

“Removing weapons from homes can save lives in fragile and volatile situations,” said the Rev. Michael Murphy, pastor of Our Lady of Victory parish and the St. Joseph’s Monastery. “It can also save the lives of those who might otherwise use a weapon to harm themselves and prevent firearms from being stolen and used in criminal acts.”

According to the Maryland Department of Health, 610 people died last year from incidents involving firearms. Of those, 276 were homicides, including 133 in Baltimore, a historic low. State data shows that 322 people died by suicide from firearms.

A founding member of Health by Southwest, a coalition of faith leaders promoting healthy communities in Southwest Baltimore, Murphy said in a statement that their work “goes beyond removing unwanted or unnecessary weapons.”

“It is about helping one another see the value of every human life and the dignity of each person,” he said. “We do this by building real relationships within the community.”

This will be the archdiocese’s fourth buyback event since 2023. Between them, Catholic Church officials said 1,056 unwanted firearms have been voluntarily surrendered, and more than $220,000 has been raised, including about $80,000 this year alone.

Buyback programs have been offered in U.S. cities since the late 1960s, when police in Philadelphia first experimented with them. The Baltimore Police Department, in 1974, collected 13,400 firearms over three months at $50 a gun.

Some critics question the efficacy of buybacks and suggest that the money spent on returns could instead be used to purchase larger or higher-quality firearms.

One critic was former Annapolis Police Chief Ed Jackson, who in 2024 began asking the public to voluntarily return firearms. Two events that year brought in nearly 70 weapons and about 11,000 rounds of ammunition.

In a phone call Tuesday morning, Murphy said that when the program first started, he received many “angry” letters and emails about how buybacks do not work. After some attempts, he said, he decided not to engage in those arguments anymore.

The people who come to the events “simply don’t want to have guns in their house anymore,” he said, adding that organizers have “no illusions” gun violence will suddenly stop in the city. But any effort to save a life, he said, should be taken.

“We can’t control what people do with the money they get,” Murphy said, “but we know that the people we’ve encountered and the stories they’ve told us do not reflect that.”

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