WORCESTER - One man came in with his gun license out, but was told to put it away as they took the shotguns and revolver he had owned since the 1970s from him at City Welding and Sheet Metal Fabrication.

Guns turned in at City Welding, 10 Ararat St., and 24 other locations Saturday during the 17th annual “Goods for Guns” buyback program were done anonymously.

Paul M. Curci, president and owner of City Welding, offered to turn the guns into scrap for the event. Mr. Curci said he had to do something following recent mass shootings. Mr. Curci and others checked all firearms brought in for ammunition before they were brought to the machine for crushing. Mr. Curci designed a clear plastic shield for those who dropped them off to watch the weapons crushed into rubble before their eyes.

“After Sandy Hook, Stoneham (Douglas High School) in Florida and other mass shootings, I had to do something,” Mr. Curci said. “We’re snowbirds, so I was down there when all that happened at Stoneham. Something needs to be done.”

He said he contacted the Worcester police chief to see if he could get involved in this year’s gun buyback.

“I support the 2nd Amendment, but there’s right and wrong,” he said. “I have the right to bear arms and people have the right to turn them in. This isn’t about the 2nd Amendment. It’s about dispensing of unwanted guns. People have a right to do that.”

By noon, the City Welding site had collected more than 30 firearms.

Co-founded by Dr. Michael P. Hirsh, Worcester Department of Public Health medical director and UMass Memorial Medical Center pediatric surgeon, along with law enforcement officials, the gun buyback program has collected more than 3,400 guns over 16 years.

Guns are exchanged for gift cards, at the event, supplied by UMass Memorial Health Care, of varying amounts: $25 for a rifle or replica gun, $50 for a pistol and $75 for a semiautomatic weapon of any kind.

Gun locks were also offered free of charge to all gun owners at these police stations whether they turn in a gun or not.

“It is going well,” Dr. Hirsh said. “I’ve been roaming around giving out new (gift) cards to different sites because they ran out.”

Two new sites in Auburn and Northboro were also added this year, he said.

Dr. Hirsh, a passionate advocate on the subject of gun violence and using preventive methods to address the issue, believes physicians belong in the middle of the gun debate.

Co-founder of Goods for Guns, a gun-buyback program that is spreading across the state and country, the Northboro resident still remembers holding the heart of one of his best friends in his hand during emergency surgery years ago after his friend was shot in an armed robbery in front of a New York City hospital where they were both training in surgery.

“This year we’re emphasizing the union of white (physicians) and blue coats (police),” Dr. Hirsh said. “There are so many chiefs in Central Mass. cooperating with us. We also have events going in two cities in New Mexico, two in California, Boston and Springfield. I think people are catching on we need to bring public awareness to this.”

Dr. Hirsh said medical students and residents were also part of the event.

“As doctors, we have an objective and opportunity to teach about gun safety and with families who may have guns and tell them it is a public safety and public health danger, both,” he said. “City Welding came forward and we can crush (the firearms) in front of the patrons’ eyes.”

One man who watched his shotgun crushed joked that he could “shoot around corners now.”

Worcester Deputy Police Chief Ed McGuinn said the primary focus of the event was to get unwanted guns out of people’s homes that could make them unsafe.

“Most licensed gun owners take good care of their guns and don’t have a problem with that,” he said. “But, circumstances sometimes change and for people with someone who has an addiction or mental health issues, this is a convenient opportunity for them to remove guns from their households.”

Deputy Chief McGuinn said he agrees with doctors talking to their patients about gun safety.

“They should ask if they feel safe at home and if having a gun is a risk factor,” he said. “I think that is fair game. The fact of the matter is, we’re not going to eliminate guns in our society. The objective is to live safely.”

In 2017, nearly 40,000 people across the U.S. died from firearms, he said.

“Of those, 60 percent of them were suicides,” he said. “And, the true numbers may actually be higher.”

Central Massachusetts police departments accepting guns Saturday included Auburn, Barre, Charlton, Dudley, Fitchburg, Grafton, Leicester, Leominster, Millbury, Northboro, Northbridge, Rutland, Southbridge, Spencer, Webster and Worcester.

Sponsored by UMass Memorial Medical Center, the Worcester district attorney’s office and Central Massachusetts police departments, the 17th annual “Goods for Guns” buyback program is coordinated to approximate the anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, (on Dec. 14, 2012) and was held in New Haven and Hartford, Connecticut; 16 Central Massachusetts sites; Boston and Springfield; and San Francisco and San Mateo, California.

This story has been updated to include all communities in Central Massachusetts that participated in the buyback program.