Amid a rise in gun violence, Long Beach could turn to gun buyback programs this summer to give residents a way to get rid of unwanted firearms in exchange for gift cards. On Tuesday night, the City Council directed staff to move forward with a program.

Shootings in Long Beach are up 58.9% over the first six months of 2021 and the Long Beach Police Department seized almost 200 more guns than last year during that time period after a spike in legal gun sales set records across the country. Police have said they’re also seeing more illegal and untraceable “ghost guns” on the street.

LBPD officers have seized over 528 guns so far this year, with over half of those being found during traffic stops, according to police. However, Councilman Rex Richardson is hopeful that a gun buyback program could take even more guns off the street.

“If you have a weapon, if you bought a weapon, if you have a weapon sitting in your attic, if you have grandpa’s old musket, whatever it is, this is a safe way to simply surrender it for a gift card,” Richardson said. “We’ve done it before, they’re successful.”

The buyback program is expected to be rolled out over the next three months. Buyback programs usually offer gift cards in exchange for guns with handguns, rifles and shotguns typically garnering a $100 gift card and assault weapons getting $200 cards. Guns are allowed to be turned in anonymously with no questions asked.

A recent gun buyback event in Los Angeles resulted in 444 guns being turned in to the Los Angeles Police Department.

Richardson’s request for a gun buyback program would be the first since his predecessor, Steve Neal, helped host a buyback program in 2013. That event took 168 guns off the streets in exchange for a total of $17,000 in gift cards to grocery stores.

Neal’s program was requested in the weeks after the Sandy Hook Elementary mass shooting in Connecticut in December 2012.

Councilman Al Austin, who co-sponsored Neal’s request in 2013, supported the request Tuesday night but asked if the city could look at a more targeted way of getting guns out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have them, suggesting that gun buyback programs take in weapons from non-violent residents.

“They weren’t the people that we necessarily want to get the guns away from,” Austin said of the people who showed up at a 2013 event at Scherer Park. “They were everyday household individuals.”

Austin asked for a focus on “prohibited-possessor” task forces to get potentially more dangerous guns off the street. Last week, police said they’ve already arrested 171 prohibited possessors—people who are barred from owning guns. That’s a 55% increase from last year, according to police.

LBPD Chief Robert Luna said his officers were taking an average of about 21 guns per week off the city’s streets, which have included ghost guns and stolen guns.

“I’m telling you right now that if our officers weren’t out there doing that proactive work, I don’t know where our shootings and murder rates would be right now,” Luna said.

It’s unclear how much the gun buyback program will cost. City Manager Tom Modica said the city will analyze how much of an investment it can afford to make in both the gift cards needed for the events, as well as the staff time to run them.

Jason Ruiz covers City Hall and politics for the Long Beach Post. Reach him at [email protected] or @JasonRuiz_LB on Twitter.