CHICAGO – Chicago’s largest-ever gun turn-in program netted more than 6,700 weapons this weekend and was so popular that police ran out of the promised $100-dollar debit cards offered to residents in exchange for their firearms.

During the daylong event at 23 churches Saturday, police collected 5,960 hand guns and 745 replicas and rifles, authorities said.

“Chicago is waking up today and saying we don’t need guns,” said Rev. Michael Pfleger, a Catholic priest who has helped lead anti-violence rallies.

The turn-in program, called “Don’t kill a Dream, Save a Life,” is an attempt to lower the city’s murder rate by getting guns off the streets. Police counted 466 Chicago slayings in 2006, about a 4 percent increase over the 447 in 2005, which marked a 40-year low.

Police said they believe Saturday’s results may be the most successful single-day event in the country and think the weapons-collection campaign was galvanized by a growing community movement to quell inner city violence.

Nearly three dozen Chicago Public School students were killed by violence during the last school year, prompting local ministers, led by the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Pfleger, to hold vigils and protests outside Chicago-area gun shops.

“In light of the recent tragedies with so many young people’s lives being taken, I think that people are starting to recognize that guns are dangerous,” said police spokeswoman Monique Bond. “I think now a sense of urgency is there.”

A similar buyback program last December netted about 1,500 guns. About 3,000 firearms were received at an event last April.