Post date: Dec 27, 2012 12:0:38 PM
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa accelerates the schedule of a gun buyback program in response to the December 14 massacre in a Connecticut school.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (DECEMBER 26, 2012) (NBC) - The Los Angeles Police Department held a gun buyback on Wednesday (December 26), accelerating the program in response to the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.
The event is normally held in May but Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa moved it forward in response to the December 14 shooting that left 20 children and six adults dead, along with the gunman, raising a national outcry against gun violence.Mayor Villaraigosa criticized the impasse of the government and Capitol Hill on gun control in the United States.
"For eight years the Senate has stopped the confirmation of the head of the ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco and Fire Arms) the organization that is duty bound to enforce these laws. The NRA said last week we should have more enforcement of our gun laws and yet they made every effort to block enforcement, every effort to have this gaping loopholes in the law that makes it almost impossible to do that," he said.
Villaraigosa said to want to change the ongoing national conversation to a "national day of action".
"I hope that we are reaching a tipping point to move beyond a national conversation to a national day of action, to a time when we can say: 'look, we can pass responsible gun laws in this country without violating the Second Amendment," he added.
People anonymously traded in their guns, no questions asked, for $200 grocery store gift cards for automatic weapons and $100 gift cards for shotguns, handguns and rifles.
Last May's Gun Buyback day netted 1,673 firearms, reflecting a four-year low. Fifty-three assault weapons, 791 handguns, 527 rifles, 302 shotguns and one anti-tank rocket launcher were collected.
Los Angeles Police Department officials were on hand at two Los Angeles locations from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. to accept weapons.
The Sandy Hook tragedy was on the minds of many gun owners turning in their weapons.
"Part of it but not really, I always thought that they should have something like this anyway. Regardless of what happens, too bad we wait for something like that to happen, you know, to decide to get rid of the the guns, the pistols, and the rifles," he said.
"It is important because too many people get killed with guns, small guns, rifles, hand guns, any kind of guns so, I am here to help to get rid off the guns I have," said another gun owner said.
Recent reports have found that weapons surrendered in buyback programs are those that are least likely to be used in criminal activities.