Carson Residents Swap Guns for Gifts
Los Angeles residents continue to turn in their guns for gift certificates. In a recent Guns for Gifts exchange sponsored by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, residents happily opened their car trunks to hand over their weapons to Sheriff’s deputies. In exchange they received gift cards to Target or Ralphs Market. Several elected officials from the city of Carson as well as Los Angeles County Board of Supervisor’s Chairman Mark Ridley-Thomas, whose district includes Carson, were on hand to encourage residents to turn in their weapons and instead use the gift cards to buy food for their families or toys for their children.
Gun owners received $50 for a non-operational firearm, $100 for a handgun and $200 for an assault weapon resulting in a total of $16,850 in gift cards being distributed throughout the day. The collected guns will be melted at GERDAU Steel Mill and recycled into rebar for construction.
“It’s simple. Firearms are a threat to public safety,” said Chairman Ridley-Thomas. “Nothing good comes from the point of a gun and I commend these residents for surrendering their firearms.”
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