The Sacramento Police Department on May 20 hosted its first gun buyback event of the year, which resulted in 128 guns being collected by the department.
Community members were able to exchange unwanted handguns for $50 and unwanted long guns or privately manufactured firearms (ghost guns) for $100. The process was anonymous with no questions asked.
The firearms will be safely stored and destroyed at a later date.
“The Sacramento Police Department recognizes that community safety is a shared responsibility between the police department and the citizens we serve,” said Sacramento Police Chief Katherine Lester. “We will continue to use innovative ideas to address gun and violent crime in our community.”
Community members most commonly cited a lack of experience or knowledge with firearms, lack of knowledge of the legality of the firearms, or an inability to safely store the firearms as the main reasons for participating in the exchange.
The event lasted about five hours and more $10,000 was exchanged for the guns. SacPD partnered with Northern State Ecumenical Conference (NSEC), Knights of Columbus, and S.A.R. to host the event.
SacPD hosted several successful gun exchange events in 2022, which resulted in the community turning in more than 400 unwanted guns.