File Photo | Credit: Waukegan Police Department

Police are teaming up with The Archdiocese of Chicago to offer $100 to residents who turn in functioning guns during a buyback event Saturday in Waukegan.

The Waukegan Police Department said they are partnering with The Archdiocese of Chicago and Most Blessed Trinity Parish to host the event.

Officials say the goal of the partnership is to purchase excess firearms from the community to increase public safety.

Shootings have steadily increased since early 2020 throughout Lake County and the Chicagoland area, police said.

“We, in the Archdiocese of Chicago, know all too well how guns can ravage our communities, whether the daily violence plaguing city neighborhoods or the still-healing scars of last Julyโ€™s mass shooting in Highland Park,” Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, said.

“Rather than allow ourselves to despair in the face of this mounting death toll, we must do as Pope Francis has asked and continue the work of eliminating gun violence by building a culture of peace,” Cupich said.

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The event is from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at Most Blessed Trinity Parish, 450 Keller Avenue in Waukegan.

Local residents who bring functioning firearms to the event will receive $100 cash and no questions will be asked.

Non-functioning guns as well as replicas and pellet guns will be purchased for $25 cash.

The Archdiocese of Chicago said they expect the event to be as successful as buyback events previously hosted in Chicago.

A press conference will be conducted after the event to discuss the number and type of weapons turned in.