El Paso County hosts gun buyback event
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- El Paso County, alongside the El Paso County Attorney's and the El Paso County Sheriffs Office, hosted a gun buyback event at Ascarate Park Saturday.
The event offered payment in the form of gift cards for unwanted firearms and ammunition.
According to El Paso County Commissioner Carlos Leon, $60,000 worth of gift cards were made available by the county to be exchanged for firearms, and by 10 a.m., $51,000 worth had already been handed out.
That amount equated to roughly three hundred guns, including handguns, rifles, shotguns, assault-style rifles, as well as antique firearms.
Congresswoman Veronica Escobar and El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego were present for the event, as well as Commisioner Leon.
Congresswoman Escobar said at the event that the federal government doesn't have enough regulation on firearms, and buyback events like these are a great way to keep firearms from "getting in the wrong hands."
"We know that in our country, without sensible federal gun laws, we have seen a proliferation of guns in neighborhoods and communities across the country," said Escobar.
"Anything that we can do to create a safer community in the absence of those federal laws is a step in the right direction," she aded.
County Judge Ricardo Samaniego said the county decided to plan the buyback event after successful ones in other Texas cities, such as Houston.
"Everything told us, especially in Harris County, that Judge Nelson Wolff was a big supporter of [these buyback events], so we know that they do work," said Samaniego.
He also stressed that this event was not an attack on gun owners nor on the second amendment; just a way to keep unwanted guns out of the wrong hands.
"The idea is not to get people to not own guns, but that they manage them properly, and if they have guns laying around that they don't need, that's what we want to help them do, to get rid of them," Samaniego added.
Commissioner Leon says after today's "successful" event, more events like this are expected to be held in the future.
