TITLE
Recommendation to direct City Manager to work with the Long Beach Police Department to conduct summer gun buyback events accessible to all parts of the city within the next 90 days.
DISCUSSION
The Problem
Over the course of the past year, we have seen a surge in gun purchases both all across America and right here in Long Beach that many attribute to the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. Skyrocketing unemployment and nationwide school and business closures have all contributed to a general rise in feelings of anxiety and uncertainty. This appears to have caused a surge in gun purchases over the past year, which can be a contributor to increased gun violence in our community.
However, as the city’s vaccination program has rolled out, the economy has reopened, and the unemployment rate has dropped over the past couple of months, the excess guns from the nearly year-long pandemic buying boom that took place between March 2020 and January 2021 remain in our community and may contribute to increased risk of gun violence. In each of those months, the number of guns purchased in the state of California was at least 30% higher than the number of guns purchased during that month in the previous year, with some months, like July 2020, reporting more than double the number of gun sales from the previous year.
The Opportunity
A recent meta-analysis in the journal Current Trauma Reports concluded that “gun buybacks are a cost-effective means to reduce the number of unwanted firearms in the general public and also provide a means for education regarding injury prevention. Buybacks in conjunction with other methods have been shown to be successful in reducing the number of firearms in circulation that could lead to injury and death.” The evidence behind gun buyback programs’ place in a broader strategy of reducing gun violence is robust.
Gun buyback programs have a successful track record right here in Long Beach, as a program in 2013 initiated by 9th Distric...
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