Gift cards for guns in buyback event planned May 11 by OC supervisors

Anyone looking to get rid of their weapons can anonymously trade them in for gift cards at a gun buyback event Saturday, May 11, in Anaheim.

The exchange day is being put together by Orange County Supervisors Doug Chaffee and Vicente Sarmiento in partnership with the city of Anaheim and the Anaheim Police Department.

“Every year, we’ve seen a lot of innocent lives lost due to gun accidents that could have been prevented. We are trying to provide the community an opportunity to safely dispose of unwanted guns that they may have in their possession,” Sarmiento said. “We, unfortunately see a lot of people not have any real opportunities to safely and voluntarily dispose of weapons that they may no longer want to have in their homes, near their families. This is just one way that we can work with local law enforcement agencies that can safely help us dispose of them.”

Participants need to make sure all weapons are unloaded and stored away in a box in the trunk of their vehicle. A police officer will remove the weapon from the trunk.

Participation is completely anonymous, no identification or personal information will be recorded.

“We don’t want people to hesitate if they’re going to be identified. No pictures are allowed. No IDs are needed,” Chaffee said. “We’ll take the weapon and depending on what it is, pay them by way of gift cards.”

Gift cards for $100 are available for each handgun or rifle, and $300 cards will be offered for assault weapons.

Chaffee’s office hosted a gun buyback program in 2022 that resulted in 420 weapons, including 16 assault rifles, being turned in.

“The goal here is to get guns that are both registered and unregistered, also considered ‘ghost guns.’ But it’s really just take weapons off the street,” Sarmiento said. “That is something that I think will improve everybody’s quality of life and public safety.”

The gun buyback event is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., on Saturday at the Brookhurst Community Center, 2271 Crescent Ave., Anaheim. For more information, visit Anaheim.net/buyback.

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