L.A. County took 5,337 weapons off the streets in Gifts for Guns program [Updated]

L.A. County’s gun exchange program collected 5,337 weapons in 2009, including 144 assault-style rifles.

[Updated at 7:30 p.m.: Officials slightly understated the numbers of guns collected in an earlier version of this post.]

 The Sheriff’s Department, along with supporters of the Gifts for Guns program, handed out more than $428,100 in gift cards throughout the year at supermarket parking lots around the county in exchange for the guns.

“I tell the deputies if it is a gun that could harm one of our deputies, then it is a gun we want off the street,” said Lt. Anthony Lucia, who oversaw the collection of 281 weapons at a Ralphs in Compton this week.

One man there turned in 58 weapons, mostly small-caliber firearms. Handguns, rifles and shotguns were exchanged with no questions asked for $50, $100 and $200 gift cards from Ralphs, Food 4 Less or Target. 

Sheriff’s officials have collected weapons in the Antelope Valley, San Gabriel Valley, Santa Clarita and southeast L.A. County. Gun buyback programs have attracted attention in cities across the country, but studies of their effectiveness in St. Louis in 1991 and 1994 found no demonstrable impact on firearm-related homicide and assault rates.

Nonetheless, the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department has made the exchanges a staple, and officials believe the program is making a difference. Almost ever month, one of the sheriff's stations has gun donors lining up in their cars and deputies loading the weapons into shopping carts to be eventually destroyed at a steel works and turned into building materials.

“We use the rebar to build schools and other places to help the communities,” Sheriff Lee Baca said.

--Richard Winton

More photos: Trading guns for gifts

Photo: Sheriff's deputies inspect and inventory about a dozen civilian versions of military assault rifles during a Gifts for Guns exchange in Compton on Tuesday. Credit: Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Joseph Blowe]

The assumption here is that these weapons were either a) illegal or b) potentially used for crime. It's nothing more than an assumption. While some turned in may fall under those categories, the unspoken reality is that these innocuously titled "Gifts for Guns" programs entice thousands of law abiding citizens to disarm themselves for a gift card. That's nothing to celebrate.

[Sandy]

I hope that each and every weapon was inventoried, serial number and all. That all officers involved are named were included in the operation. previous collections of weapons have been removed from the armory only to surface in the hand of criminals or in Officers possession. Now that non-criminals have surrendered their weapons, what protections will they have against the gangs in Los Angeles.

[Julia Rose]

Brilliant idea! I hope research soon shows that it IS making a difference... maybe even some interviews with some of the participants, put it on video, and post it to the LA Times website?

[Taggart]

Congratulations on a complete waste of time. Those guns came out of attics and closets and a good deal of them were no doubt old non-functioning hunting rifles and/or otherwise useless as criminal weapons. For certain no gang-bangers or robbers turned in their guns. It's just a big dog and pony show to help Lee Baca take credit for the lowering crime rate (which is mostly due to the Three Strikes laws that California citizens passed in the 1990's).

[PadrePete]

Whatta deal; guns for.... department store trash. Now there's an original idea... or maybe not? A tad of timeless wisdom;
"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety [or merchandise, food or other temporal crap]*, deserve neither liberty nor safety." Benjamin Franklin - sometime shortly before February 17, 1775
Good luck fending off assailants now suckers. Just to let you know; it gets really dark and stuffy inside... when they zip that body bag over you.
*[] emphasis mine
I don't know about anyone else, but I'm surely expecting and look forward to another entertaining decline in the national IQ in 2010.
Slap, Happy New Year!

[dogrob1]

SO WHEN AND HOW WILL THEY RESURFACE IN THE COMMUNITIES, AND YOU KNOW THAT THEY WILL ! THE WEAPONS SHOULD BE DESTROYED WHEN THEY ARE RECEIVED ON LOCATION,OR THE WEAPONS SHOULD BE REDEEMED BY THE MANUFACTURER FOR A GIFT CARD, TO MANY WEAPONS AND TOO MUCH TEMPTATION FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT AND ANYONE ELSE THATS INVOLVED IN THE COLLECTION OF THESE WEAPONS