The Long Beach Police Department will host a gun buy-back event on Saturday, Oct. 2 where community members can turn in their firearms in exchange for a gift card.
The event is an attempt by the department to reduce the number of guns in Long Beach by giving residents an opportunity to surrender their firearms anonymously. The department will offer gift cards in the following amounts: $50 for nonfunctional firearms, $100 for handguns, rifles and shotguns, and $200 for assault rifles.
The goal of the event is to reduce the number of guns in Long Beach to curtail shootings and violence, as well as to reduce the chance of firearms being stolen and ending up in the hands of prohibited possessors.
Residents will drive to the event and enter with the unloaded firearm(s) in their vehicle’s trunk, where detectives will collect the weapons while residents remain in their cars. Residents will receive their gift cards while firearms are placed into the possession of the police’s Forensics Science Services Division.
The program is supported by $75,000 in funding that was approved by the Long Beach City Council on July 20 of this year. The department estimates a cost of $64,000 for the event—$40,000 towards purchasing gift cards from Albertsons and Target and $24,000 towards staffing costs.
In 2013, the department held a similar event which yielded a total of 168 firearms, including five assault weapons, according to a memo to the city council.
A research team from California State University, Long Beach will conduct anonymous surveys during the event to better understand the public’s participation.
The event will take place Saturday, Oct. 2 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Veterans Park, 101 E. 28th Street, Long Beach, CA. For more information about the event, residents can reach out to the police department by calling 562-570-5273 or emailing LBPDMediaRelations@longbeach.gov.
