LAPD News:
The community is invited to join the New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence (NMPGV) and Los Alamos Police Department 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 28 for the first ever Guns To Gardens Gun Buyback event.
Following a successful fundraising effort by NMPGV, Oct. 28 will mark the fourth statewide gun buyback to safely get unwanted working guns out of homes and off the streets. 
Over the coming year, RAWtools, in partnership with Santa Fe Community College welding and sculpture students, will forge unwanted, dismantled guns into garden tools and public art projects and installations. Watch RAWtools at work here: https:////rawtools.org/swords-to-plows/.
According to the New Mexico Department of Health, 405 people were shot and killed in this state in 2015. This means that gun-related deaths in New Mexico increased 16.4 percent in the past year, marking the largest increase in gun deaths in decades.
Additionally:
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New Mexico children are killed by firearms at a rate 60 percent higher than the national average;
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The majority of people in possession of unwanted firearms do not know how to dispose of them responsibly;
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Secondhand transfers of such firearms do not require transaction records or criminal background checks; and
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Gun buyback programs are a proven way to safely and anonymously collect thousands of such weapons, immediately reducing the risk of gun violence in any community.
Merchant cards for gas and food will be distributed in exchange for unloaded, working firearms. All exchanges are anonymous, guns that are turned in will be dismantled onsite.
This event will be held in conjunction with the DEA drug take back day where citizens can turn in unused and unwanted medications.
Two locations will be hosted for Drug take-back-day:
- The Los Alamos Police Department; and
- The White Rock Visitor Center. (Guns will only be turned into the Los Alamos Police Department … not the visitor center.)
