Inspired by Holden’s Buy-Back Offer, AK-47 Assault Weapons Come Rolling In

A Los Angeles woman with 13 AK-47s and a Tarzana real estate broker with seven Thursday apparently became the latest citizens to take up Los Angeles City Councilman Nate Holden on his offer to buy back military-style assault rifles.

Meanwhile, a local radio station offered a $1,000 reward to the first person to show up at the station with a receipt for surrendering such a weapon.

On Thursday night, Los Angeles police said, a woman who said she had just purchased 13 AK-47s from a gun shop for more than $300 each turned them in to officers at the Southwest Division station.

They were still packed in their boxes, Sgt. Michael Miskowitz said. He declined to identify the woman, who did not provide a motive for turning in the weapons at what would be an apparent loss.

However, another police source said “some of these people seem to think they may get paid for them from more than one source. . . . Some come in and ask if they can get their guns back if they can’t get money from more than one source. We tell them ‘no,’ because, once we get them, we are going to destroy them.”

Earlier, Jeff Fox, 37, and three of his employees at Geoffrey Allen’s Properties Plus scoured the streets of the San Fernando Valley in search of the deadly weapons.

By midday, Fox had purchased seven AK-47s from half a dozen stores, spending nearly $2,500 of his own money, he said.

“We’re just doing it to get these things off the street,” Fox said.

Holden had announced Tuesday that he would pay up to $300 out of campaign funds for each Uzi, an Israeli submachine gun, or AK-47, a Russian-designed assault rifle, brought into his office or to police.

Patrick Edward Purdy used the semiautomatic AK-47 to kill five children and wound 29 others and one teacher in Stockton earlier this month before killing himself.

Holden’s plan was scoffed at by a spokeswoman for Mayor Tom Bradley--Holden’s opponent in the upcoming mayoral election.

“It’s spitballs at battleships,” said Dee Dee Myers, who dismissed the plan as a “distraction to the real solution.”

But Holden defended his plan Thursday. “If we can save just one additional life, it’s a good program.

Not to be outdone by Holden, KIIS-FM disc jockey Rick Dees upped the ante, offering to pay $1,000 to the first person to turn in an assault weapon to police and bring the receipt to the station.

An unidentified young woman from Encino then surrendered an AK-47 to officers at the LAPD’s Hollywood station and drove to the radio station with her 7-year-old son to claim the prize.

“She was real nice,” said Karen Tobin, marketing director at the station.

Tobin said the station would pay $300 to each gun owner who came to the station with a police receipt for an AK-47 or Uzi by 10 a.m. today.

Even the police got into the anti-AK-47 spirit Thursday as the Board of Directors of the Los Angeles Police Revolver and Athletic Club voted unanimously to stop selling semiautomatic assault rifles at its Police Academy store.

“This is a decision prompted by the fact that the chief of police has taken a strong stand on the issue,” said Officer Chuck Foote.

Gun owner Mike Wilson was already turning in his AK-47 at the Van Nuys police station when real estate broker Fox arrived with the seven rifles he had rounded up.

“If I took it back to the gun store, it would probably end up in the hands of a dope dealer,” Wilson said of his weapon.

As for Fox, he said he felt he had made an important contribution to fighting crime. He said he was slightly disappointed, however, when he discovered that Holden’s office would not pay the $300 per weapon mentioned in earlier news reports.

“They said if they’re made in China, they’ll only give me $150,” he said.