In lean times, SoCal residents trade guns for food

[bryand71]

Another waste of taxpayers money.

http://enews.earthlink.net/article/top?guid=20081207/493b5850_3ca6_15526200812071661652157


In lean times, SoCal residents trade guns for food

By THOMAS WATKINS (Associated Press Writer)
From Associated Press
December 07, 2008 10:12 PM EST

LOS ANGELES - A program to exchange guns for gifts brought in a record number of weapons this year as residents hit hard by the economy look under the bed and in closets to find items to trade for groceries.

The annual Gifts for Guns program ended Sunday in Compton, a working class city south of Los Angeles that has long struggled with gun and gang violence. In a program similar to ones in New York and San Francisco, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department allows residents to anonymously relinquish firearms in return for $100 gift cards for Ralphs supermarkets, Target department stores or Best Buy electronics stores.

Turning in assault rifles yields double that amount.

In years past, Target and Best Buy were the cards of choice, with residents wanting presents for the holidays.

This year, most asked for the supermarket cards, said sheriff's Sgt. Byron Woods.

"People just don't have the money to buy the food these days," he said.

Deputies were counting the weapons collected and expected to gather about 1,000. Authorities said 590 guns and two hand grenades were handed in during the last weekend in November, more than the total collected in any year and eclipsing last year's 387 guns.

Compton's violent history has been chronicled in such gangsta rap albums as N.W.A.'s "Straight Outta Compton." But Woods said most of the residents who turned in weapons were "family people."

"One guy said he had just got laid off from his job," Woods said. "He turned in five guns and said it would really help him to put food on the family's table."

Gun owners dropped their weapons off at a local grocery store parking lot. Deputies checked the weapons to see whether they had been used in crimes, then destroyed them.

The annual drive started in 2005 after a spike in killings, though the murder rate has since dropped.

One man brought in a Soviet-era semiautomatic carbine.

"If that got into the wrong hands of gangbangers, they could kill several people within minutes," Woods said. "Our biggest fear is a house getting burglarized and these guns getting taken."

The drive also has yielded antique weapons.

Gift cards for the guns exchange were paid mostly by Los Angeles County, but the three companies involved and the city of Compton, which contracts the county for police protection, also donated funds

[tombogan03884]

It is obvious that this program was not noticed by gang bangers, or they would have robbed it and taken ALL the cards 
Seriously, criminals don't turn in their guns for food, they steal money and buy it no matter how hard times are.

[SigShooter]

Why don't they have programs where you can trade narcotics and other drugs for food? Maybe it's cause the people who come up with this stuff hate guns and could care less about substances that motivate the user to commit crimes. You can always turn in a gun to a police department.  We have Gunbroker for trading guns for cash, we don't need a program for it.

[TAB]

its not illegal to own guns, it is to own drugs...

[1776 Rebel]

Why don't they have programs where you can trade narcotics and other drugs for food? Maybe it's cause the people who come up with this stuff hate guns and could care less about substances that motivate the user to commit crimes. You can always turn in a gun to a police department.  We have Gunbroker for trading guns for cash, we don't need a program for it.

That actually is a brilliant idea ! By confronting these spineless politicans with such a proposal you could illustrate how stupid buybacks are. Simple question to the pols and the press - if gun buybacks are so good for society why don't we have a drug buyback program?

I am sure they would rail againist such a drug proposal because they know it would create a secondary market. Any thug with more than a second grade education would be buying drugs and cutting them down to increase volume and sell them to the gov't. It would actually increase drug activity. But guns are different...RIGHT ! They don't get challenged enough on these buybacks. 

[Sponsor]

[MikeBjerum]

Wow ... you can turn in an AR worth $800 and up for a $200 gift card.  Bet they get a lot of takers on that one    Wonder how many big, mean, nasty Barretts they'll take off the streets 

[runstowin]

Perhaps Downrange.tv can set up a program to trade  $200 gift certificates for assault rifles, some to sell, some to give away.