Catalyst in N.Y. Gun Buybacks Coming to L.A.

After collecting more than 1,000 firearms in a successful goods-for-guns program in New York City, a businessman said he is bringing his trade-in campaign to Los Angeles.

Fernando Mateo, the carpet company president who spearheaded the plan, said he was flying Monday night to Los Angeles to meet community leaders and “people working with gangs” in a first step toward expanding the swap program beyond New York.

“It’s going berserk. We thought it would slow down, but it keeps growing and growing,” Mateo said.

As of Sunday night, gun owners had turned in 1,025 firearms in upper Manhattan’s high-crime neighborhood of Washington Heights in exchange for $100 coupons, no questions asked, said Victor Morisete, an assistant to a New York city councilman who has helped organize the plan.

The gift certificates were originally good at Toys R Us stores when the plan started Dec. 23. They are now valid for purchases of shoes, mattresses and gasoline at other businesses.

The guns, including everything from hunting rifles to a submachine gun, will be melted down to make artificial Christmas trees, among other things, Mateo said.

The plan applies so far to only one police precinct in Washington Heights, which has one of New York City’s highest homicide rates. Gradually, it will expand to other New York districts as long as financing holds up, Morisete said.

“As of last week we had over $100,000 that came in on corporate sponsorship. If funding continues growing and growing, then the program can continue, and its success will depend on that,” he said.

The Police Department has collected 3,000 guns citywide in its own 20-month-old program that offered $25 to $75 for each weapon.

But in Washington Heights, only seven guns were brought in during the last year, compared to 1,025 under the gun swap program in that neighborhood alone, although not all the guns come from people living in that neighborhood.

Although the plan has succeeded beyond all expectations, the head of a citizens’ anti-crime group said the program was small in comparison to the city’s crime problem. In New York last year, 1,995 people were murdered, down less than 1% from 2,007 in 1992.

Official figures estimate there are 200 million guns in the United States and more than a million in New York City, most of them illegal.