Fredericksburg's Gun Give-Back Program Could be Model for Statewide Program
A bill introduced this week by Josh Cole, Fredericksburg's representative in the House of Delegates, would establish a statewide firearm give-back program.
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
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Since it was established in 2014, Fredericksburg City’s Gun Give-Back program has collected 242 unwanted firearms, City Councilor and Vice Mayor Chuck Frye announced at Tuesday’s meeting.
The firearms—which include hand guns, long guns, homemade shot guns, and other types, according to the program’s website—were donated to the program on a voluntary basis, accepted with no questions asked, and offered to the Virginia Department of Forensic Science to assist with research.
Fredericksburg is the only locality in Virginia to operate a voluntary gun give-back program, Frye said—but that might not be the case if a bill introduced on Tuesday by Del. Josh Cole, who represents the city as well as parts of Stafford and Spotsylvania, moves through the General Assembly and is signed into law.
The bill, HB 702, directs the Department of State Police to establish a statewide firearm give-back program and develop policies for the implementation of the program among local law-enforcement agencies—though participation in the program by local agencies would be voluntary.
It also directs the department to establish the Virginia Firearm Give-Back Fund to be used “solely for the purpose of development and implementation of the program.”
Frye asked that Council write a letter in support of HB 702, which is pending referral to a committee in the House of Delegates.
Frye, who spearheaded the gun give-back program as well as the “Murder Free Fredericksburg” initiative, also highlighted on Tuesday that the entire calendar year 2025 passed with “zero homicides” in the city.
Council’s first regular meeting of 2026—and the first with new members Joy Crump (Ward 2) and Matt Rowe (Ward 1)—lasted just 50 minutes.
Council approved on second read the release of $6 million that was held back from the current fiscal year’s budget in case revenue sources stagnated due to turmoil in the federal government. However, staff reported that all major revenues, except for hotel lodging tax, are trending at or above last fiscal year, and “at this juncture, we do not see any signs of a sharp downturn in local revenues due to the government shutdown or recent federal adjustments.”
About $1 million of the holdback is allocated for the school division.
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Fredericksburg’s safe‑disposal initiative, and Delegate Cole’s effort to scale it, deserve real credit. Their work, alongside the Police Department’s focus on teen violence and community safety, shows what can happen when local leaders move beyond rhetoric and put practical, voluntary tools on the table. These programs give residents a way to remove unwanted firearms from circulation and signal a serious commitment to safer neighborhoods, especially for young people.
But the success of a “safe disposal” program depends on the ecosystem around it. Voluntary surrender is, by design, a narrow, harm‑reduction tool. It becomes far more meaningful when it operates inside a broader strategy that includes community‑violence intervention, youth support, crisis response, safe storage, and focused enforcement on the small number of people and places driving most gun harm. That kind of strategy has to be coordinated across state agencies, local governments, schools, health systems, and community partners—not built one bill or one program at a time.
The encouraging news is that Virginia already has many of the elements such a strategy would require state grant programs to support community‑violence and prevention work, university‑based research centers that specialize in firearm injury and youth violence, local initiatives like Fredericksburg’s Community Safety effort, and emerging models in cities across the Commonwealth. What Virginia does not yet have is a clear champion—an office, a statewide leader, or a legislatively empowered body—tasked with pulling those pieces together into a single, sustained plan with concrete goals and public accountability.
That is where the General Assembly comes in. Legislators can do more than authorize individual programs; they can create the underlying framework for a comprehensive approach. That means: establishing a permanent state‑level home for gun‑violence prevention and community safety; directing that office to work with localities and researchers to produce and regularly update statewide and local strategic plans; and providing the resources necessary to develop, execute, and sustain those plans over time. The Commonwealth clearly has the expertise and tools; what it needs now is the will to knit them together. Frye, Cole, and the Fredericksburg Police Department have taken important first steps. The next step is for legislators to ensure that these kinds of initiatives no longer stand alone, but instead operate as part of a coherent, long‑term strategy that every community in Virginia can see, measure, and help shape.