The church's gun amnesty ended at 6:00 this evening. The official count is one 38 revolver, 22 rounds of live ammunition and one blank. After two days of the amnesty program at three collection centers, it would appear to be a colossal failure - although an asterisk might be put on the total to note that operation Jaguar may have had a deterring effect on those who might want to take a gun to a collection center.
But the churches aren't making excuses or begging understanding. One of the lead organizers Pastor Eugene Crawford is undeterred. He says the church is still determined and it will reconfigure its efforts:
Pastor Eugene Crawford, President of Association of Evangelical churches
"Really I was expecting during these two days we would have collected a lot of guns. From what I see we may not collect the amount to my expectations, but I feel very positive about it because it is a start and we intend to continue. Whether we collect two guns, twenty guns or 200 guns I feel very positive about it."
Jules Vasquez
"A gun for many men, it's a practical reality, it's very hard to overcome that with prayer or an appeal to one's sense of the right."
Pastor Eugene Crawford
"These same rough men you are talking about, you'd be surprise to know that when you catch them on a one to one, when you appeal to them and when they see the genuineness of where you are coming from, even they themselves would make certain confessions to you and realized that they wish they would have a better way out to survive. Definitely Jules with God's help that with our second attempt at this would be very different from the first in that a lot of these same people would be involved in this issue because honestly they want to surrender their guns and they want a different lifestyle that they are living."
Pastor Eugene Crawford
"We are already are putting plans in place for next week after the destruction of whatever we have collected to look at phase 2 which will involve more people. "
Crawford says he sees the church gradually changing its role in society to be a more vocal advocate for social justice...
