There were 289 functioning guns collected Saturday at a buyback event in South Whittier organized by Supervisor Janice Hahn’s office.
The 289 guns consisted of 129 pistols, 85 rifles, 41 shotguns, 21 ghost guns and 13 assault rifles, according to Hahn.
There have been 2,967 unwanted guns Hahn’s office has helped collect and destroy in the 16 buybacks it has organized since 2022.
Participants in the buyback from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the South Whittier Community Resource Center received Amazon gift cards worth $50 for non-functioning firearms or parts, $100 for working rifles, pistols, shotguns or handguns, $200 for ghost guns and $300 for assault rifles.
“I do these gun buybacks because I know that there are people who have guns that they do not want in their homes but don’t know how to get rid of them,” Hahn said in a statement. “This provides an opportunity for people to do that safely and legally.
“This was one of our more successful gun buyback events.”
The effectiveness of gun buyback programs in reducing crime has been questioned.
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.