MikeLigalig.com

LOS ANGELES – A program to exchange guns for gifts brought in a record number of weapons this year as residents hit hard by the economy look under the bed and in closets to find items to trade for groceries.

The annual Gifts for Guns program ended Sunday in Compton, a working class city south of Los Angeles that has long struggled with gun and gang violence. In a program similar to ones in New York and San Francisco, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department allows residents to anonymously relinquish firearms in return for $100 gift cards for Ralphs supermarkets, Target department stores or Best Buy electronics stores.

Turning in assault rifles yields double that amount.

In years past, Target and Best Buy were the cards of choice, with residents wanting presents for the holidays.

This year, most asked for the supermarket cards, said sheriff's Sgt. Byron Woods.

"People just don't have the money to buy the food these days," he said.

Deputies were counting the weapons collected and expected to gather about 1,000. Authorities said 590 guns and two hand grenades were handed in during the last weekend in November, more than the total collected in any year and eclipsing last year's 387 guns.

Compton's violent history has been chronicled in such gangsta rap albums as N.W.A.'s "Straight Outta Compton." But Woods said most of the residents who turned in weapons were "family people."

"One guy said he had just got laid off from his job," Woods said. "He turned in five guns and said it would really help him to put food on the family's table."

Gun owners dropped their weapons off at a local grocery store parking lot. Deputies checked the weapons to see whether they had been used in crimes, then destroyed them.

The annual drive started in 2005 after a spike in killings, though the murder rate has since dropped.

One man brought in a Soviet-era semiautomatic carbine.

"If that got into the wrong hands of gangbangers, they could kill several people within minutes," Woods said. "Our biggest fear is a house getting burglarized and these guns getting taken."

Gift cards for the guns exchange were paid mostly by Los Angeles County, but the three companies involved and the city of Compton, which contracts the county for police protection, also donated funds. - AP   

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Gun sales in U.S goes up so high right after the election.People giving up their gun for food? Economy crisis must have hit hard in big city.Criminals are smart they know they will avoid household who have guns.I'm for keeping guns and be more responsible about it.It's your only protection against these bad guys.People living in the country own guns and these criminals know they would never dare set foot on other people property or they be shot.I remember reading a sign post in someone property it says NO TRESSPASSING THOSE WHO TRESSPASS WILL BE SHOT AND THE SURVIVOR WILL BE SHOT AGAIN  actually its funny but have strong message.Remember the California riots before.The black people burn lots of white businesess and these business owner think owning a gun is evil.They just watch their building burn down into ashes but the korean people who own guns they sit on top of the rooftop with their guns and those black people never even dare step close to those business building who have guns.
Immagine how much these black people have let down when they realize Obama promise for them will never happen.Lets just hope this will never happen or else there will be big riots everywhere.

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