If you have a weak stomach - don't read this....

**Gary in Pennsylvania** · August 3rd, 2009, 01:48 PM

16,000 L.A. guns to be crushed today, turned into steel rebar

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lano...eel-rebar.html

16,000 L.A. guns to be crushed today, turned into steel rebar
8:35 AM | July 28, 2009
Officials today will destroy 16,000 guns confiscated from criminals and collected from numerous gun buy-back programs across L.A. County.

Law enforcement agencies have attempted to get guns off the street by allowing people to turn them in for gift cards.

Back in March, an LAPD gun-buyback program that traded gift cards for firearms netted nearly 1,700 weapons, including 40 assault-style weapons and a rifle with a grenade launcher.

The grenade launcher AR-15 rifle, which did not have a grenade in it, was delivered to the Los Angeles Police Department's Topanga station over the weekend as officers across the city distributed gift cards in exchange for handguns, rifles and shotguns. The anonymous drop-off program netted AR-15s, Uzis and AK-47s. Sheriff Lee Baca will be on hand in Rancho Cucamonga to watch the guns being crushed. They will be recycled into steel rebar.

-- Shelby Grad

And the comments posted below the article (click the link) are........uh......interesting.
Most folks feel the way you and I do though.

**AKross** · August 3rd, 2009, 02:05 PM

Hey, they could just give a few of the nicer ones to me and I would buy them some rebar. Seams an awful waste considering the time and engineering needed to make something as carefully crafted as a firearm. Your right about those comments, some of them are getting pretty colorful.

**Poonie** · August 3rd, 2009, 02:23 PM

They had a gun buyback program going on in Philly about a year ago. Supposedly wasn't legal so the program faded away, but the one time they gave it coverage on the news, people were turning in anything that resembled a gun to get the $50.00 coupon...Most of the guns were inoperative pieces of junk or cheap Saturday night specials that wouldn't matter whether tossed in a smelter or not. And they're not doing one thing to thwart crime.

Most of those buybacks only get junk off the street. I doubt many of these california guns are worthy of any attempt to save.

**Gary in Pennsylvania** · August 3rd, 2009, 02:25 PM

I just cannot wrap my mind around the gun buyback concept.

If I were president, I'd implement a firearm equivalent to the Cash for Clunkers program.

"Bring in your poor-value, pitted, inoperable firearms and get a $450 rebate coupon good towards a new Sig, S&W, HK, Springfield Armory, etc....."

**ungawa** · August 3rd, 2009, 02:26 PM

ARs make great steel rebar. I hope their parking garages collapse on them.

**CerealKiller** · August 3rd, 2009, 02:43 PM

I would be upset, but hey, it's California. Those people dont' deserve guns anyway. They've made their beds, they can sleep in them. I guess they could always beat someone to death with their surf boards, LSD, and gucci bags