SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio gun owners will have the option of turning in any unwanted firearms this weekend, in exchange for H-E-B gift cards as part of the city’s first-ever gun buyback.
The “Voluntary Weapons Exchange” is the work of San Antonio Councilman John Courage (D9), who has tried unsuccessfully in the past to get a city-sponsored event off the ground. Now, with $175,000 in donations -- $100,000 of which is from his discretionary council district funds -- the four-term councilman is seeing his attempt to combat gun violence come to fruition.
“Certainly right here in San Antonio, people have been asking for a while. ‘What can we do about this? Can we do something?’” Courage said at a news conference on Wednesday. “And we know the federal government is very limited on what they’re doing. And we know the state government is almost doing the opposite of what needs to be done when it comes to gun safety. But we can do something.”
The North Side councilman hopes to collect 500 to 600 guns, which will be destroyed. If it’s successful, he hopes there could be more buybacks in the future.
More than 4,200 weapons were collected in the Houston area during four such events.
People will be able to exchange as many as 20 unloaded weapons for H-E-B gift cards at the drive-thru event at Alamodome Parking Lot B between 12-5 p.m. on Sunday.
Gun owners will receive $50 for a non-functioning or home-manufactured weapon, $150 for a rifle or shotgun, $200 for a handgun, or $300 for a semiautomatic rifle.
San Antonio Police Chief William McManus has said police officers at the event will check each firearm’s serial numbers on-site, and will need to talk to anyone who brings in a stolen gun or one with a destroyed serial number. Otherwise, the police chief said, it will be anonymous.
Critics of buybacks, including McManus, have questioned whether they’re an effective tool for reducing gun violence.
READ MORE FROM KPRC, KSAT’s sister station: Do gun buybacks work?
Courage said the event is not about trying to lower the crime rate, “but it is an effort to make people feel safer and to end maybe other violent activities that could be occurring in the home.”
He has used the possibilities of guns being stolen, being part of an accident, or used in a suicide or domestic violence incident as reasons someone may want to dispose of their weapons.
And though Courage admits there is no way to measure if removing one of these guns will keep it from being involved in an injury, death, or crime in the future, he said it reduces the likelihood of it happening.
“And the more we can reduce the likelihood of those things happening in our community, the safer we are,” Courage said.
The executive director of the P.E.A.C.E. Initiative, Patricia Castillo, demonstrated a similar line of thinking to explain why her group felt it was a “no brainer” to help Courage’s office with the event.
Castillo’s nonprofit group works with families experiencing domestic violence, which all too often includes guns.
“Anytime a weapon is put away, is put down, is turned into an art piece, it’s not going to kill somebody. And that’s what we’re doing, saving lives,” she said.
Courage said other partners for the event include the Interfaith Coalition, COPS Metro, the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District, Moms Demand Action, VIA Metropolitan Transit, and the San Antonio Area Foundation.
The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office has also donated 200 gun locks, which will be available at the event, he said.
