
New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence want to buy your firearms from you.
If you have any unwanted guns, New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence wants to take them off your hands in exchange for gift cards. The nonprofit plans to hold its second Santa Fe gun buyback with the help of the Santa Fe Police Department on Saturday June 29.
NMPGV Co-President Miranda Viscoli tells SFR the process will be extremely easy.
"It'll take them literally four minutes; they're in and out so fast," she says. "It's painless."
Participants are allowed to turn in more than one gun. They'll drive up to the SFPD main station with the guns transported in the trunk of their vehicle and an SFPD officer will retrieve the firearms from the vehicle while the seller chooses their payment.
A variety of gift cards will be offered that can be used for groceries, gas or pharmaceuticals at places like Smith's, Sprouts, CVS and Brewers gas stations. The value of the cards will depend on the type of gun turned over: $100 for pistols and long guns, $200 for semi-automatics and $250 for assault weapons.
It's that easy.
A couple of things to keep in mind: Guns must be in working condition and not loaded. SFPD officers will run a check of the guns through the National Criminal Background Check System (NICS) to make sure they have not been stolen or involved in a crime. However, Viscoli says that the NICS checks won't take place until after the person turning in the gun has left the premises, to protect the confidentiality of those turning them in.
"It's very, very anonymous," Viscoli stresses. "We don't take any names or pictures or any information."
If a gun turns up as stolen in the NICS check, it will be returned to its rightful owner, otherwise it will later be dismantled and forged into garden tools by Brazilian blacksmith Tiago Torres da Silva.
The tools will be for sale at a later date to help the nonprofit finance future gun buybacks; some will also be given as gifts to people who make donations to join the group.
This is the ninth buyback that New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence has held in the state and the second in Santa Fe. Viscoli says that at their first buyback in the city, held in 2016, the group received about 55 guns.
Viscoli says guns in the buyback program usually come from people who feel unsafe having guns around the house or who have inherited a weapon that they just don't want; no gun the group has received has been reported as involved in a crime and only one ended up as stolen.
"There's this fear that someone might break into peoples' houses to steal guns to sell at the buybacks," Viscoli explains. "But that's not happening."
Viscoli also assures SFR that the buyback doesn't cost Santa Fe taxpayers anything; New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence foots the entire bill.
According to a 2019 report by the New Mexico Department of Health, the state has consistently had higher firearm mortality rates than the US at large since 2005, with New Mexico seeing three firearms deaths to every two in the US. New Mexico had 436 firearms deaths in 2018, making it the most violent year of gun-related deaths in over a century.
"We have a ridiculous amount of firearms in New Mexico. Those unwanted guns are the guns that we're concerned about because those are the ones that are not being watched. They're not locked up, they're left in the closet where kids play, they're left around houses," Viscoli tells SFR. "So this gives people the opportunity to get rid of that gun and know it's never going to get into unsafe hands."
Guns to Gardens Gun Buy Back
10 am-2 pm Saturday June 29. Free. Santa Fe Police Headquarters, 2515 Camino Entrada, 428-3710