The Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office is holding its 2023 gun buyback event June 3 to offer an exchange of firearms for gift cards.
The gun buyback is scheduled for 9 a.m.-noon at the South Valley Social Enterprise Center, 722 Isleta Blvd., in southwest Albuquerque, according to a May 26 KRQE report.
“Gun buybacks are an effective way to get unwanted guns out of homes," Miranda Viscoli, co-president of New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence, said, according to KRQE. "Guns are dismantled on-site and the scrap metal is forged into gardening tools by high school students from RFK Charter School through the SWEPT nonprofit.”
The event is described as a safe surrender where no information is retained, KRQE reported. Participants can present an unlimited amount of firearms, but they must be in working condition and unloaded.
The dollar amounts of the gift cards to be distributed in exchange for the firearms are $250 for an assault weapon; $200 for a semi-automatic handgun or semi-automatic rifle; and $100 for long guns, revolvers and pistols, the KRQE report said.
The sheriff's office will also conduct a National Crime Information Center inquiry on the firearms to make sure they have not been stolen, according to KRQE. Gunlocks will also be provided free of charge to gun owners who attend the event.
The buyback event is being conducted by New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence, Partnership for Community Action, Southwest Education Partners for Training and Fiesta Subaru, KRQE reported.
NMPGV, according to its website, was formed in 2013 as a non-profit organization with a mission to reduce firearm injury and death through public health, education, advocacy and public awareness, in order to protect the safety of families and communities.
"We work through grassroots mobilization to promote reasonable gun laws, as well as educating the public about gun safety and the high emotional and financial costs of gun-related violence against children and adults," the website said.