Anyone wanting to give up their guns anonymously can hand them over during the Long Beach Police Department’s gun buy-back event at the beginning of October, the LBPD announced.
On Saturday, Oct. 2, 2021, LBPD will accept firearms in exchange for gift cards:
- $50 for non-functioning firearms
- $100 for handguns, rifles and shotguns
- $200 for assault rifles
The event will run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Veterans Park (101 E. 28th St.).
Under police instruction, residents enter the event in a vehicle with any unloaded firearm(s) in the vehicle’s trunk. Detectives will then recover the firearm(s) from the trunk while the resident remains in the vehicle. After that, the resident will receive their gift cards.
All firearms will be placed under the possession of the department’s Forensic Science Services Division, according to police.
In response to the city’s violent crime, police said this gun buy-back event serves as an effort to reduce the number of guns in the community by giving residents both an opportunity and incentive to surrender their guns anonymously.
Police say the event is an opportunity to eliminate the chance that these firearms might get stolen, used illegally or obtained by “prohibited possessors.”
At the event, a research team from Cal State Long Beach will also conduct anonymous surveys to better understand public participation, police said.
Has Long Beach seen the same crime spike as other major cities?