Nassau Secures Shipment For Guns Donated To Ukraine

NASSAU COUNTY, NY — After successfully collecting dozens of firearms to be donated to the people of Ukraine, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman announced that the county had secured a way to ship the guns overseas.

Earlier this month, in partnership with SP Firearms in Franklin Square, Nassau County started a collection drive to gather firearms to send to the people of Ukraine, so they could fight back against Russian invaders. County residents donated guns — or money to purchase guns — to SP Firearms. Blakeman announced that the weekend-long drive had collected 60 guns.

"We knew that this was going to be a difficult process," Blakeman said. "To get the firearms over to the Ukrainian people, we knew that would be something that would take a bit of time. We got great cooperation from so many agencies."

Blakeman said the county received help from the State Department, the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and more, in order to get the guns overseas.

The final help came from Kel-Tec Weapons, a US-based gun manufacturer, which is going to use its export license to ship the guns overseas to Ukraine.

"We have a long business relationship in Ukraine and have lost contact with a good customer whose business was destroyed as a result of the war," Adrian Kellegren, executive with Kel-Tech, said in a statement. "Our company is in the process of opening a path to be able to donate close to 460 rifles to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense: 60 from Nassau's donation drive, 400 that were part of our customer’s last order. We are happy to announce we were granted an expedited export license to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine."

Blakeman said he hopes Nassau's drive will inspire other municipalities across the country to have similar gun drives, and donate the weapons to Ukraine.

"We're hoping this spreads throughout the whole United States," said Blakeman.