Gun Buyback Program Set at Palm Springs PD

The Gun Buyback Program is Completely Anonymous

For at least the second consecutive year, the Palm Springs Police Department has organized a “Gun Buyback Program” for April 17, 2021.

The Palm Springs Police Department Gun Buyback Program will reportedly help in the reduction in gun violence while rewarding community members for their willingness to voluntarily exchange their firearms for gift cards. The procedure is completely anonymous in that an individual can, without being questioned, surrender their firearm for a gift card.

Weapons should be unloaded and transported in the trunk or rear area of the vehicle. There is no limit to the number of firearms that can be turned in by individuals, according to police. Those surrendering their firearms will be given a $50 gift card for inoperable firearms, $100 in gift cards for handguns, $200 for shotguns and rifles and $250 in gift cards for assault weapons (as classified in the State of California). Once a firearm is surrendered to the Gun Buyback Program it becomes the property of the Palm Springs Police Department and will not be returned. Palm Springs Police personnel will later verify the serial numbers to each firearm to determine whether the firearm had been reported stolen. Stolen firearms will be returned to their owners. The remaining firearms will be taken into the Palm Springs Police Department Property/Evidence room and scheduled for destruction.

For those that plan on participating in the program, please leave your firearm in your vehicle. Walk to a waiting officer and explain that you have a firearm to submit for a gift card. The officer will safely retrieve the firearm from your vehicle after which you will be given a gift card in the appropriate amount.

The Cathedral City Police Department held a similar Gun Buyback Program in December 2018. More than 50 guns were relinquished to the Cathedral City Police Department during the voluntary effort. Handguns amounted for almost half of the guns turned in and rifles amounted for the other half.  At least two “assault-type” rifles – as classified by the State of California – were turned in.

According to the Congressional Research Service, there are roughly twice as many guns per capita in the United States as there were in 1968: more than 300 million guns, just shy of being enough to arm every man, woman and child in the country.

The U.S. has the 32nd-highest rate of deaths from gun violence in the world: 3.96 deaths per 100,000 people in 2019. That was more than eight times as high as the rate in Canada, which had 0.47 deaths per 100,000 people — and nearly 100 times higher than in the United Kingdom, which had 0.04 deaths per 100,000.

The numbers come from a massive database maintained by the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, which tracks lives lost in every country, in every year, by every possible cause of death.