‘I don’t want them anymore.’ Oregon dad has guns destroyed after Texas school shooting

Vandana Ravikumar
·2 min read
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A father of two in Oregon said he gave his guns to his local police department to be destroyed after the recent shooting in Uvalde, Texas that claimed the lives of 19 children and two teachers.

In a widely-viewed TikTok video, Ben Beers said he was turning over his two guns — a 9 mm handgun and an AR-15 — to the Hillsboro Police Department because he doesn’t want them anymore.

“I know this will not change legislation, or anything to do with gun culture in America, but hopefully it’ll be a form of symbolism,” Beers said in the video. “Hopefully America can wake up, because no other country has the problems that we do with gun culture, ideation, and gun violence like we do.”

In the rest of the video, Beers calls for changes in legislation and the U.S. Constitution and shows a filled-out form at the police department, forfeiting the weapons.

The video had nearly 200,000 views as of May 27.

Beers told KGW that he’s previously owned and sold other guns in the past, but that the recent shooting made him want to have his existing weapons destroyed instead of put back on the market.

Hillsboro police did not immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News. However, Sgt. Clint Shrz told KGW that the department gives the weapons to another company to be destroyed, and that people turn guns over to the department “about once a month.”

Police departments across the country have similar programs and according to The Trace, several of the country’s largest police departments, including in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia and Houston, destroy thousands of guns each year.

And according to CNN, federal law enforcement agencies have destroyed over 90,000 guns in the past decade.

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