Dorothy Cunningham’s grandson was killed in crossfire on his way home from school in 2017. Nearly a decade later, she stood in the parking lot of Westview Shopping Center watching cars line up for the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s fourth annual gun buyback.
Known as the “unofficial mayor of Irvington,” Cunningham uses her fictional title to help promote a cause that “means a lot” to her.
“I make sure I’m here for every event, promoting, putting out fliers, doing whatever I can to promote this so we can get guns off the street,” she said. “It didn’t save his life, but it may save somebody after him.”
A total of 431 firearms – including 108 revolvers, 124 semi- and fully- automatic weapons and 199 rifles and shotguns were collected at the archdiocese’s fourth annual gun buyback. Since its start in 2023, a total of 1,487 firearms have been collected by the Baltimore Police Department.
“Any weapon taken off the street – saving even one life – that’s well worth the effort,” said Father Michael Murphy, pastor of Our Lady of Victory in Arbutus and St. Joseph’s Monastery in Irvington, as he welcomed everyone. “As I look at people saying, what makes a day a success? We shouldn’t use that word. It’s not a success but an ongoing process of making … our cities, our homes and neighborhoods safer.”
Father Murphy has been the main organizer behind the gun buybacks, working with local nonprofits, community leaders, elected officials and the police department to ensure the day’s success.
“Baltimore is experiencing record declines in homicide, record declines in non-fatal shootings and it’s because of our village. It’s because of folks like Ms. Dorothy, folks like Father Mike. All of us uniting together with these types of gun buyback events to say there is a path to peace, and we need to find it,” Zeke Cohen, Baltimore City Council president, said afterward. “I am just honored to be here in this moment where we’re seeing just amazing, amazing record declines of violence in our city and it’s because of the hard work that some of our folks who have been at this for a very long time poured into it.”
In 2025, 610 people died in Maryland in incidents involving firearms, including 276 homicides and 322 suicides, according to state Department of Health data. In 2024, 725 people died.
“I’ve been in this town for a long time, long time, and I’ve never seen numbers like this in terms of the reduction of shootings, in terms of the number of people who have been violently assaulted,” said U.S. Congressman Kweisi Mfume. “This is something I think people should feel good about.”
Mfume added that he recently secured $250,000 in federal funding for home safety gun locks that will be available for free at all Enoch Pratt libraries.
“I got inspired to do that by coming to these,” Mfume said, noting that he had been to all but one of the gun buybacks. “I was just letting Father Murphy know that something really good has come out of it and that is another initiative to prevent the violence that we’ve seen in this city.”
Individuals received between $100 to $300 for each gun, with a limit of receiving funds for two, though more could be donated. A total of $90,000 was raised by the archdiocese for the gun buyback, according to Father Murphy. Excess funds are donated to the archdiocese’s grief ministry for homicide victim’s families.
All guns collected that had not been reported stolen are destroyed. Between 30 and 40 members of the Baltimore Police Department were assigned to the gun buyback.
“It is a positive operation,” Baltimore Police Captain Christopher Warren, executive officer of the Southwestern District, said of the gun buyback. “I went to Mass a couple weeks ago at St. Joseph Monastary and Father Murphy said that he knows a lot of bad guys aren’t going to turn their guns in but this may prevent a suicide or domestic violence or a gun being stolen out of a house. So this is definitely a positive impact for the community.”
Across the street in a local park, a community festival offered free burgers and snow cones while nonprofits provided everything from vegetables, T-shirts and bags filled with toiletries and other necessities.
Email Katie V. Jones at kjones@CatholicReview.org
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