King County Sheriff hosting ‘Gift Cards for Guns’ event to promote public safety | Washington

(The Center Square) – The King County Sheriff’s Office is holding its first “Gift Cards for Guns” event as a way to reduce the number of firearms in circulation in the region.

The event will be held on April 1. Participants can turn in firearms ranging from junk guns to machine guns. Toy guns, pellet guns and objects that look like firearms, ammunition or magazines can be turned in as well, but no compensation is given.

The program is funded by a $100,000 allotment that was granted by the King County Council in July 2022. King County councilmembers approved the program with the intention to address an increase in gun violence in King County. 

“As your Sheriff, I am committed to doing everything I can to reduce gun violence in King County,” King County Sheriff Patty Cole-Tindall said in a statement. “The Gift Cards for Guns program is an important step in making our communities safer through a simple, voluntary process.”

The City of Seattle and King County held a similar one-day gun buy-back event in 2013 which netted 716 firearms and saw $68,000 in gift cards distributed, according to the county.

The event will be hosted at the sheriff’s office’s southwest precinct in Burien. According to the department, a second event is slated to take place in North King County later this year.

The Kirkland Police Department held its own gift card for guns program in 2022. The department received 91 guns from 45 participants who were reimbursed with a collective $11,375 in Visa gift cards.

Out of the 91 firearms turned in, there were “three AR-15/AK-47 type firearms, 32 handguns, 47 rifles/shotguns and nine obviously non-functioning firearms/pellet guns,” according to the Kirkland Police Department.

The price for each type of firearm given to the King County Sheriff are as follows:

• $300 for AR-15s, AK-47s and machine guns

• $200 for pistols

• $100 for revolvers and shotguns

• $100 for rifles, .22LR weapons that look like AR-15s or AK-47s are traded as rifles, not as AR-15s or AK-47s

• $50 for muzzle-loading firearms manufactured less than 82 years ago

• $25 for antique firearms, junk guns and firearms that appear inoperable