It's Almost Guns-For-Gift-Cards Time Again

The city of Portland and the Ceasefire Oregon Foundation are beginning to publicize this year's annual gun turn-in event, August 18, from 10am-2pm in the north Benton parking lot at Memorial Coliseum.

Last year's annual event had lackluster results. As the Portland Tribune reported at the time, private gun buyers crashed the event, holding signs that advertised $50-$200 cash for guns.

This year, organizers have upped the ante:

Instead of giving away a $50 Fred Meyer gift certificate for each working firearm, like last year, Ceasefire is giving away a $75 gift certificate (limit three per person, "while supplies last").

The $5 Burgerville gift certificate trade for or broken guns and air pistols, however, is the same deal.

Similar programs around the country are facing opposition from the gun lobby. In Chicago this year, for instance, a "Guns Safe Life" campaign traded more than 60 guns for $6,240 in gift cards, which organizers used to buy ammo for an NRA-funded kids' gun camp, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Last year, former WW reporter James Pitkin showed how easy it is to procure a used gun of unknown provenance by overpaying for a 9mm in the parking lot of the "Unsafeway" on MLK.