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SLO residents turn in 202 guns to officers, get groceries in exchange

October 4, 2022

By JOSH FRIEDMAN

Local residents turned in a total of 202 firearms on Saturday during the San Luis Obispo Police Department’s inaugural “Groceries for Guns” event.

Officers encouraged community members to turn in unwanted guns in exchange for gift cards from local grocery stores. Police ended up distributing $11,900 worth of grocery gift cards.

Half of the guns residents turned in were rifles and shotguns. Of the other 101 firearms, 95 were handguns and six were assault-style rifles, police say.

“In speaking with many of those who brought in unwanted weapons, most had mentioned they had been ‘laying around’ and wanted to responsibly dispose of them,” Police Chief Rick Scott said in a statement. “This was the exact purpose of the program, to give our community members a resource to dispose of unwanted firearms. We know the people that turned these guns in are not the kind of people who would use a weapon to harm another, but they are most likely to not effectively store or take care of these weapons as they need to be to keep them from falling into the hands of someone who will use it in a crime.”

Anyone else who would like to turn in unwanted guns can contact the department’s property office at (805) 781-7360 in order to make an appointment.


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Maybe SLO city should pay people to turn in their illegal drugs and paraphernalia. That would be much more cleansing to thse those individuals and the community. Drugs kill more than guns. Shallow thinkers I guess.


27

Was former Chief Cantrell’s gun one of the ones turned in for groceries?, oh that’s right her storm troopers got it back.


31

Not surprised given how difficult and costly the ammo is.


10

The criminals who turned them in should have been arrested on the spot. No law-abiding citizen would turn in a gun for groceries.


12

Bullshit.


Plenty of folks have unwanted guns around their houses. Maybe an inheritance or something they bought for a specific hunting trip and only used it once.


The fact that most of the purchased guns were rifles adds evidence to my theory. America is awash with guns. Why not get the unwanted ones off the street so they don’t fall into criminal hands.


According to a 2020 Gallup Poll, only about one-third of Americans actually own guns—meaning that about 100 million people own about 400 million guns. There has to be excess. How many times can you go to the range? Why do you need four guns? I mean, people who are specialty shooters or hunt with different weapons should be excluded, but, sheesh, too many guns.


Hooray for SLOPD. Fewer weapons on the streets means that officers will be less likely to be shot. Isn’t that a goal we should all get behind?


-32

With 120 guns on the streets for every 100 Americans it seems we have a long way to go to dispose of all the unnecessary and unwanted firearms in this nation.


-50

I might be good to inspect them and if in good firing order and appropriate for use icw at home protection, sell them to low income, eligible citizens. Xmas is coming soon?


28

How many will be checked through ballistics to see if they were used in any crimes??


1

Will they be reselling them? That double barrelled shotgun in the blue tub looks kinda cool…


14

Hopefully they were turned in by the criminals. Ha! That comes to about $59 per gun. I’d gladly have given them 2-3x that. Such a joke to waste tax dollars on this.


35

What a crass and short sighted attitude :/ I applaud the initiative and hope it’s a continued success.


-39

Not to mention the Daisy Red Rider I spotted. $54 on Ebay for new in the box. SLO got robbed by the Police!


8

Curious about how many of these firearms might be worn out, unsafe or stolen. Since rifles and shotguns are unlikely to be used in a crime, Where are the handguns?


19