Pastor to Kids: Guns Kill

It was a "back to school bash" with a deadly serious message.

Dozens of children gathered in Albany's Livingston Park on Monday, less than a half-mile from the street where 10 year-old Kathina Thomas was killed by a stray bullet in late May. Each child left with a free backpack containing school supplies emblazoned with a terse warning: guns kill.

"We see a tremendous coming together with people out on the street here in joining with us and really accepting what we're doing," said Pastor Charlie Muller, who organized the event with funds provided by Albany County District Attorney David Soares and the Albany Police Department.

Muller's gun buyback program -- in which residents can anonymously trade a firearm for a $150 Crossgates Mall gift card -- has netted 70 guns during the past three months, the pastor said. He expects to receive 200 by the end of the year.

Sending children back to school with information about the program -- and the dangers of guns -- is critical, Soares said.

"We have to begin to indoctrinate them into a positive culture at the age of four in this community," he said.

Muller's Victory Christian Church just received an additional $10,000 from the Albany County Legislature. The money will be used, in part, to pay for a series of newspaper ads touting the gun buyback program. They're expected to run beginning on Tuesday.