Bishop Robert Pettus and members of the Selma Police Department and Macedonia Apostolic Church were hoping a four-hour window for their gun buyback would take at least 50 guns off the street Saturday.

As it turned out, they needed less than an hour.

In a little more than 45 minutes, 57 guns were collected and removed from the streets.

The response, Pettus said, took everyone by surprise.

“We averaged about a minute a gun,” he said. “The response was great, and we are hoping next time to have more participation from the people, churches and other supporters who can help make this a big event and get these guns out of circulation.”

Pettus said they hope to raise more funds for a similar event in the spring.

The response for this event was so overwhelming, some were turned away because the money allotted for the event ran out. Those who brought in their guns were given $100 each with no questions asked.

By the time the event began, Pettus said people were lined up.

The guns ranged from traditional shotguns and rifles to small, easily concealed pistols and sawed-off shotguns.

Selma Chief of Police William T. Riley said he was very encouraged by the number of people who brought weapons to the drive.

“We had a very, very good response,” he said. “People were lined up on the road. We looked down and there were 47 weapons in a hurry. I knew we would get a response, but we were surprised by the level of the response.”

The program, Pettus said, was launched after a meeting between local pastors and District Judge Bob Armstrong to discuss what could be done to get guns off the streets.

“We were trying to come up with some ways to stop the violence in the city, and I thought we could have the buyback program to get some of the circulation of guns off the street,” he said. “We have so many homicides in our city with guns and we wanted to do something on our part to try to make a difference and help the city.”

In the future, Pettus said he hopes even more churches and citizens will chip in to help. Anyone interested in participating in the spring program can call 872-8338.