LAPD offering gifts for guns in buy back program
December 11, 2014
City News Service
Two locations will be open Saturday December 13 to allow for the anonymous return of firearms, the Los Angeles Police Department announced. The locations, in Van Nuys and the Arlington Heights neighborhood in the Mid-City area, will allow gun owners to surrender their weapons anonymously in exchange for Ralphs Grocery Store gift cards as part of the 2014 Gun Buyback Program, a police department statement said. A returned handgun, shotgun or rifle will be eligible for a $100 gift card, while an assault weapon will command a $200 card, it said. The locations are 2379 West Washington Blvd. in Mid-City and 14750 Sherman Way in Van Nuys. They’ll be open between 7 a.m. and 2 p.m. Saturday.
More information on the program is available from the Mayor's Communications office at (213) 978-0471, or LAPD Media Relations at (213) 486-5910. The effectiveness of gun buyback programs have been questioned by some critics. A 2004 report by the National Academy of Sciences titled “Firearms and Violence: A Critical Review” found that “the theory underlying gun buyback programs is badly flawed, and the empirical evidence demonstrates the ineffectiveness of these programs.”
The report found that guns that are typically surrendered in buyback programs are those that are least likely to be used in criminal activities, such as guns that are old or malfunctioning.