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Salt Lake City to host gun buyback after U.S. mass shootings

Individuals will receive a $50-$100 gift card in return for their weapons.

(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall announces a gun-buyback event, which will take place Saturday June 1, 2022, along with the Salt Lake City Police Department. Residents can surrender their firearms "no questions asked" in exchange for a gift card. The program was announced at a news conference at the International Peace Gardens, on Friday, June 3, 2022.

  | June 3, 2022, 10:27 p.m.
| Updated: June 4, 2022, 1:21 a.m.

The Salt Lake City Police Department announced Friday that it will host a gun-buyback event on June 11 following a series of mass shootings across the U.S. in recent weeks.

Individuals will be able to exchange their firearms next Saturday “no questions asked” for a $50 gift card, and those who exchange fully or semi-automatic rifles will receive a $100 gift card, according to SLCPD. Only one gift card will be given per person.

The announcement fell on National Gun Violence Awareness day, and came days after a deadly mass shooting at a medical center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and a little over a week after a mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, killed 19 children.

“Gun violence is not rare in this country,” Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall, who took part in the Friday announcement, said in a news release. “In fact, it is now the leading cause of death of our children. There is something inherently wrong.”

The gun-buyback event will take place between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. at the Public Safety Building, located at 475 S. 300 East in Salt Lake City. Firearms should be unloaded and secured when turned in.

“If you have a gun lock or a case, please put that firearm in the case or use the gun lock,” police advised. “When you approach the event greeters, they will ask you if the gun is secured, unloaded and where it is located.”

To participate, individuals do not have to be Salt Lake City residents and do not have to bring an ID. Once the weapons are exchanged, they will eventually be destroyed or turned in to SLCPD’s police museum or police crime lab, police said.

Mendenhall said Friday that such gun-buyback programs have been “very successful” for gun owners who want to take their firearms out of circulation.

“Over the years, there have been far too many acts of gun violence in our community,” Salt Lake City Police Capt. Charli Goodman said in a news release. “We continue to work with our federal partners, and receive training from them, to aggressively investigate and prosecute gun crimes when they do occur.”

National Gun Violence Awareness Day is also known as “Wear Orange” Day as part of a national campaign to prevent gun violence. Mendenhall and other officials wore orange T-shirts during the announcement Friday morning.