GUN CONTROL : Weapon Swaps Span the U.S.
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Gun buyback programs have made headlines from New York to Los Angeles in the past month. But such programs are not new. Baltimore successfully used such a program 20 years ago. Here is a review of some of the bigger or more unusual gun buyback programs in recent years:
Salt Lake City: Offered $25 per gun beginning Nov. 9
Denver: NBA team offered tickets for gun at Jan. 22 event
New York: Offered both a toys-for-guns plan and $75 gun amnesty program
Norwalk, Conn.: Toystore offerd $100 gift certificates for working handguns
Paterson, N.J.: Food-for-guns plan offered gift certificates worth $50 to $100
St. Petersburg, Fla.: Baptist ministers offered $25 per gun on Martin Luther King’s birthday
Los Angeles: $50 worth of concert or other tickets from Ticketmaster in December
PAST PROGRAMS
Baltimore, 13,000 guns, three months in 1974, $650,000.
St. Louis, 7,500 firearms, October 1991; cost $341,000.
Hennepin County, Minn., 6,200 guns, seven days in February, 1992; $50 per gun.
Syracuse, N.Y., more than 2,700 firearms, May 1992; $50 for handguns, $25 for long guns.
Buffalo, N.Y., 2,000 guns, four days in February, 1993, cost $75,000.
Seattle, nearly 1,800 guns, September, 1992; $50 per gun.
San Francisco, 1,730 firearms, October-December, 1991; cost $89,500 (buyback didn’t accept rifles, shotguns or guns that didn’t work).
Boston, 1,300 guns, June-September, 1993, $50 per gun.
Jefferson County, Ky., more than 1,000 guns, February and October, 1992; $40 worth of coupons for each gun.
Philadelphia, more than 1,000 firearms, July, 1991; cost $20,880.
Washington, D.C., 400 guns in two days in September, 1992 before being suspended due to lack of funds. Cost: $20,000 in private donations.
Los Angeles, more than 130 assault weapons, 1989, in return for $300 cash apiece offered by City Councilman Nate Holden.
Sources: Associated Press bureaus, Handgun Control Inc.