John P. Kee

At the New Life Fellowship Center, the Christmas season has evolved into something more than simply giving and receiving gifts. It also has become a time to make the Qcity safer.

Each season for the past five years, Pastor John P. Kee has hosted a gun buyback program, allowing youths – or in some cases their parents – to exchange firearms for cash or gift cards. Last weekend the church collected more than 40 handguns and 22 long guns.

Kee, perhaps most noted as a gospel recording artists, calls the campaign a “preemptive strike” against crime.

“If we can get that gun off the street and next year crime goes down, we think we had something to do with it,” he said. “We feel we are making a difference. On a national level, we’ve gotten a lot of publicity out of it, and we’re encouraging other pastors to do the same.”

Kee said he started the program after he noticed some years back that some of the young men who were coming into his church at night to play basketball under his “Night Court” program were packing heat. Rather than run them off, he decided to try something different.

“I started a dialog about guns in the streets,” he said. “What I discovered was that a lot of these guys had guns that grandma had left under the bed for years. They were carrying them under their clothes or in their gym bags.”

That first year he offered $100 for every rifle and $50 for every handgun.

“Everybody laughed at me and said it wouldn’t work,” he recalled.

But work it did. That first year, Kee said, he anticipated collecting 10 or 15 weapons but ended up collecting 75.

Over the years, Kee has reduced the amount he gives for each gun – this year he gave a $25 gift card for each weapon turned in. The guns are surrendered anonymously then turned over to police to be destroyed.

Key conceded that acting as a go-between can be tricky at times.

“The police officers want to come in early, but we just have to keep those cars away,” he said. “I’m telling the kids, ‘Bring the guns. We’ll turn them in. Nobody is trying to run you down.’ ”

Kee said most of the guns are turned in by youths. The youngest this year, he said, was about 15; the boy surrendered a black, pump-action, sawed-off shotgun.

“You’d be surprised what the babies are brining in,” he said. “To think that they have access to the firearms…You just never know.”

In other cases, Kee said, parents turn in guns they find in their kids’ rooms or family guns they are afraid to keep in the home around children.

Kee said his church saw a trickle of guns coming in all weekend. He said he suspects some will use the gift cards to buy video games or other Christmas desires.

“The way the economy is, I knew it would be strong,” he said of this year’s program. “I didn’t know it would be this steady.”

Aside from simply taking guns off the streets, Kee said he uses the opportunity to talk with the boys about their lives and the importance of making good decisions. And given the success of the annual program, he said, the church may add a second buyback date in June.

“We’ve lost quite a few kids in the last couple of years,” he said.

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