El Paso County has experienced an uptick in gun related violence and deaths in recent months. Gun buyback programs allow gun owners to voluntarily surrender personal firearms in exchange for cash, vouchers, gift cards, or similar items of value. The goals of gun buyback programs are to reduce the number of firearms that could lead to injury or death and to educate communities about gun violence prevention strategies. They are a mechanism for governmental authorities to address gun violence at the local level and safely remove unwanted firearms from the community.
When used as a part of a larger gun violence prevention program, gun buybacks have been shown to be successful in removing firearms that could lead to injury or death. Most recently, Harris County has successfully launched a gun buyback program and has collected over 4,200 weapons over four separate events to date. Harris County utilized ARPA funding to support their gun violence prevention programs and serves as a model for addressing public health in a post-COVID environment.
The El Paso County Gun Buyback Program will create a partnership between El Paso County, the El Paso County Attorney's Office and the El Paso County Sheriff's Office, to coordinate and launch multiple gun buyback events aimed at collecting unwanted firearms in exchange for gift cards. The total requested budget up to $300,000 will allow the flexibility needed to launch a pilot program, as costs will vary depending on the number of types of weapons collected. The budget request will enable at least two gun buyback events and cover expenses related to personnel from the El Paso County Sheriff's Office, gift cards for up to 500 firearms per event, communications and community outreach expenses, weapons testing and destruction-related expenses, and incidental expenses.