PHILADELPHIA PA, April 4 -- Congressman Chaka Fattah and Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown today declared they will sponsor at least two more “Groceries for Guns” exchanges by the end of April as they encouraged Philadelphians to continue turning in firearms toward the goal of a Gun Safe Philadelphia.

Congressman Fattah outlined the goal for upcoming firearms-for-grocery voucher exchanges at a news conference at the Philadelphia Police evidence warehouse. Fattah and the Police displayed hundreds of firearms retrieved at “Groceries for Guns” Feb. 10 in West Philadelphia and March 31 at Congressman Fattah’s Northwest Philadelphia office.

“Philadelphians want to be partners in our Gun Safe Philadelphia efforts, to make our homes safer, our communities safer,” said Congressman Fattah, who created the program. “They have responded to ‘Groceries for Guns’ by trading more than 600 firearms for $200 grocery vouchers in our first three exchanges.

“We expect to have at least two more exchanges by the end of this month and show how Philadelphians in two more neighborhoods are ready to step up and help out,” he said.

Sites, dates, and other details for the late April exchanges will be announced.

Councilwoman Reynolds Brown, who was unable to attend the news conference, stated, “‘Groceries for Guns’ is not just talk. It is action. It is a piece of the puzzle to make our City safer. I am happy to be a partner from the start.”

State Senator Vincent Hughes has also been a partner in the exchanges.

Fattah was joined by a representative from The Fresh Grocer, a co-sponsor and participant in all three exchanges. The $200 vouchers were redeemable at The Fresh Grocer, with Acme Market vouchers also available at the most recent exchange.

Fattah noted that about $120,000 in “real dollars, real vouchers” have been traded so far for unwanted firearms that might otherwise be stolen from homes, involved in street violence or employed in anger during a domestic dispute. 

Today’s display brings the total for three exchanges, according to Police officials, to 604 pistols, Saturday Night Specials, sawed off shotguns, rifles, semi-automatics and other firearms. Weapons are turned in no-questions-asked, so police can disable and dispose of them immediately.

More than 250 firearms collected on the Martin Luther King birthday observance, January 15, have already been melted down and turned into steel plate and armored plate, much of it for military materiel.

Firearms from “Groceries for Guns,” as well as weapons seized by Police in on-going crime fighting efforts, are transported at least three times a year to the electric-arc furnace at Mittal Steel USA in Coatesville, PA – up to 3,500 weapons at a time, according to the police.

Mittal Steel, which bought the old Bethlehem factory in 2005, has melted guns for police and other law enforcement agencies in the Philadelphia area for years.

The firearms become steel plate or, after transfer to the Mittal plant in Conshohocken, processed into military-grade armor plate, a specialized hardened grade. That means gunmetal traceable to the streets of Philadelphia ultimately becomes armor plate protecting Humvee occupants or aircraft carriers, soldiers’ armor and other materiel. Steel plate also finds broad use in bridges, windmills and other commercial goods.

“It is good to hear that while we are saving lives here in Philadelphia, our citizens are helping, in some modest way, to save lives and protect our brave fighting men and women around the world,” Fattah said. “Our main goal remains a Gun Safe city, but the fact that these dangerous weapons are turned to a positive use makes this program a win-win.”

The Northwest Fund was principal sponsor of the March 31 “Groceries for Guns.” The list of cosponsors for one or more of the exchanges also includes the Police, Men United for a Better Philadelphia, Radio One, Business Manager John Dougherty and IBEW Local 98, The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, PECO, Merrill Lynch and People for People Inc.