ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – It’s part of Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s recent health order on guns: New Mexico State Police (NMSP) using tens of thousands of dollars to buy back hundreds of weapons in just a few hours this weekend. However, even with that high demand not everyone is counting the buyback as a success. News 13 heard from some of those who say the buyback was a bust.
“Reaction is a good one, right? We wanted a lot of attendees, a lot of participation and we definitely got that,” said Lieutenant Philip Vargas, public information officer for NMSP.
Albuquerque was one of three locations—including Española and Las Cruces—where state police spent Saturday buying back people’s guns, and this time there were bigger incentives: a $200 VISA gift card per handgun, and a $300 VISA gift card per rifle, shotgun, or assault weapon. “The idea is that state police has coordinated these events, right? So that we can help make our community safer, right, so help reduction in deadly accidents, homicides, suicides, gun-related violence, things like that,” Vargas said.
Roughly $80,000 from the governor’s executive order allowed State Police to buy 732 of these gift cards; and in the end, state police collected 439 firearms across the three locations.
“We have a lot of positive feedback,” Vargas said; but not everyone feels the same. “It was a disaster. I had two guns: a pistol and a shotgun. And I was trying to get $500 worth of gift cards for my daughter…get gas and I didn’t come anywhere near that,” said Raymond Morgan, who attended the Albuquerque buyback event Saturday.
Less than two hours into the event, the gift cards ran out. “The time it took was an hour and a half for me. I finally pulled up at an hour and a half to a state patrolmen who said they were out of money,” said Wallace Ledbetter, who also attended the Albuquerque event.
Participants tell News 13 that the line to get into the event was like a parking lot. “You sit in your car for an hour and a half you know for 200 dollars for one pistol, {laughs}, and you burn a lot of gas while you’re waiting too,” Ledbetter said.
State Police told gun owners they could still leave their weapons even though the money had run out. “I wasn’t going to do that and nobody else was either. Cause everybody was heading for the gate and leaving,” Morgan said.
Some tell News 13 the event should have been planned better. “The governor sponsored this thing…It didn’t go smooth. They said it was. It was just a fiasco,” Morgan said.
NMSP said 160 guns were handed in after the gift cards ran out. They told News 13 there was no limit to how many gift cards one person could get; the more firearms they turned in, the more money they got.
In a statement from the Governor’s Office, a spokesperson told News 13 in part: “Given the robust participation in Saturday’s events, we are absolutely interested in organizing future buybacks.”
