The Albuquerque Police Department will partner with New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence for a gun buyback event this month that offers cash payments and free sports tickets in exchange for firearms.
The Safe Surrender Gun Buyback will run from 9 a.m. to noon Aug. 23 at APD’s University Substation, located at 1009 Bradbury Dr. S.E. The event is designed to remove unwanted firearms from the community and prevent them from falling into the wrong hands.
“This will be our third safe surrender gun buyback event with this local organization and we’ve heard nothing but good feedback from our community,” APD Chief Harold Medina said in a press release. “We will continue to provide a safe outlet for people in our community to get rid of unwanted firearms that could have potentially gotten into the wrong hands.”
New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence, a nonprofit organization, will provide cash payments ranging from $100 to $250, depending on the type of firearm surrendered. Assault weapons will receive $250, semi-automatic handguns and rifles will receive $200, and long guns, revolvers and pistols will receive $100. Participants will also receive free tickets to University of New Mexico football games, New Mexico United soccer matches and Albuquerque Isotopes baseball games.
The organization has facilitated 25 gun buyback events and removed more than 3,000 firearms from New Mexico communities, according to the press release. Nearly 40% of the weapons collected have been semi-automatic firearms and assault-style weapons.
“Gun buybacks are an effective way to get unwanted working firearms out of our communities,” said Miranda Viscoli, co-president of New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence. “To date, we have dismantled over 3,000 firearms with close to 50% being semi-automatics.”
At the most recent buyback event, 215 firearms were surrendered, including 17 assault weapons, 78 semi-automatic handguns and 23 semi-automatic rifles. The organization distributed $30,000 in cash payments.
The surrendered weapons are dismantled on-site, and the scrap metal is forged into gardening tools, musical instruments and art pieces by high school students from RFK Charter School through Southwest Educational Partners and Training.
Participants must keep firearms unloaded and stored in vehicle trunks. Police will run background checks on surrendered weapons to ensure they are not stolen. The event does not retain information about participants, and people may surrender multiple firearms as long as they are in working condition.