CLEVELAND -- City leaders hope a gun buyback program will help lower crime in the Cleveland area.

"Easy access to guns equals more violence and we really felt that this initiative would help lower violence in the neighborhood and across the city," said Adam Gifford with Slavic Village Development.

About 421 guns were turned in Saturday in Slavic Village, a Cleveland neighborhood that has been battling a crime wave.

People who turned in a gun got a $100 gas card.

All of the guns collected will be traced and entered into a nationwide database, and then a Cleveland company will recycle them to make steel.

Police said such efforts make our streets and homes safer, getting guns out of homes where children can find them, and injure themselves or someone else.

There have been 118 homicides in Cleveland so far this year. That is one fewer than the total number of homicides in 2006.