Over the weekend, the Los Angels County Sheriff’s Department hosted a Gifts for Guns Program, which allowed people to turn in firearms to deputies with no questions asked. Furthermore, in exchange for the guns, the Sheriff’s department was giving out gift cards.

[view:node_ad=5] The purpose of the event is to take unused or unwanted guns out of the picture. Aside from taking guns directly off the streets, it helps allow law abiding residents to safely surrender their firearm if it is not wanted anymore.

KHTS covered the event Saturday, where the Sheriff’s department collected 150 guns. After Sunday’s event the grand total was pushed to 255. See more pictures of the guns collected by reading Saturday’s story.

The Sheriff’s Department is planning on continuing this successful program throughout the county. Future Gifts For Guns collection events will be held on the following dates at the following locations:

April 25, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
* Altadena Sheriff Station
* San Dimas Sheriff Station

May 2, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
*Crescenta Valley Sheriff Station
* Marina del Rey Sheriff Station

May 8-9, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
* East Los Angeles Sheriff Station
* Lennox Sheriff Station
* Industry Sheriff Station

May 22-23, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
* Lost Hills Sheriff Station (May 23 only)
* Avalon Sheriff Station (May 22 only)

May 30-31, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
* Temple Sheriff Station
* Compton Sheriff Station
* Pico Rivera Sheriff Station

The drop off sites are not generally at the Sheriff’s Station itself.  Contact any of the above referenced stations or Sheriff’s Headquarters Bureau (323) 526-5541 for more details and safe surrender locations or visit the LASD.org Web site.

Of course, the Santa Clarita Sheriff’s Station will always allow for the safe surrender of guns. If you would like to get rid of your firearm, simply put it in your trunk, unloaded. Then drive to the Sheriff’s department, leave the gun in the trunk and alert the front desk personnel that you have a firearm you would like to surrender. A deputy will then take the gun out of your trunk.

All guns surrendered to Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies are logged and destroyed.

Next week, deputies will combat another sort of danger; identity theft. A free community shred event will be taking place in the College of the Canyon’s parking lot on Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

All residents are allowed to bring their personal documents that need to be destroyed to the event, where deputies will oversee the safe destruction, thus preventing criminals from going through your trash and pulling out sensitive information.

Also, the day will provide people the chance to drop off all electronic waste and unused medicine for safe disposal.

For more information on this event, click here.