ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 22, 1996 TAG: 9612230161
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: OAKLAND, CALIF.
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Grocery carts full of rifles and handguns and sawed-off shotguns sat nearby as defensive tackle Chester McGlockton handed out Raiders tickets and softly thanked each person.
``Bless you,'' he said as gang members, proud fathers and septuagenarians turned over everything from Swedish army rifles to Nazi-era handguns to tiny pistols that fit comfortably in the purses of society women.
McGlockton led several Raiders teammates in promoting a tickets-for-guns exchange intended to get some firearms off Oakland's deadly streets. In four hours, police collected 152 weapons on a soggy Saturday afternoon.
In exchange for each gun, McGlockton and his teammates offered a handshake, a few words of thanks and two tickets to Sunday's season finale against Seattle.
The gun toters at the rain-swept Oakland Coliseum ranged from a couple in their 70s, relieved to get rid of three hunting rifles that had been rusting in the garage, to sullen teen-agers who seemed to bristle at the sight of so many policemen - all of whom donated their time Saturday.
``This is a way to begin to curb some of the violence on the streets,'' said McGlockton, who led his teammates in donating money to pay for the tickets. ``God blessed me to be a professional football player, and this is what he put me here for. This is one way of helping people.''
Many of those who turned in guns were drawn by the offer of tickets or the chance to meet McGlockton and teammates such as Tim Brown and Pat Swilling. Others simply wanted to rid their homes of at least some of their guns.
``I'm about to have a kid. My other guns are handguns and they're all locked up, but I couldn't lock up this one,'' said 22-year-old Paul Bonifacio, who turned in a 12-gauge shotgun.
His friend, Gabe Aranda, had heard of earlier computers-for-guns exchanges, but didn't become interested until the Raiders tickets were offered. He, too, still has other guns at home.
``That was probably one of my most deadly ones,'' he said of the shotgun he had just given to police. ``Also, it was illegal.''
Many of the people who turned in guns wore silver and black Raiders jackets. One brave soul wore a 49ers cap. Mary and Charles Sharp, a couple in their 70s from San Francisco, huddled under an umbrella.
``We had thought about it before, but we didn't know who to give them to,'' Mary Sharp said of the hunting rifles her brother had left her a decade ago. ``This was just a chance to get rid of the guns. I hope we can find someone to give the tickets to.''
LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines KEYWORDS: FOOTBALLby CNB