City’s Offer May Smoke Out Firearms : Weapons: Merchants will give a $100 grocery certificate for each gun turned in. No questions will be asked.

Maybe it’s a dusty old .22-caliber rifle, sitting in a back closet. Or a .357 magnum, hidden from curious children.

Whatever type of gun it is, it can be traded for groceries next month in Long Beach when the city, following the lead of other urban centers, offers a goods-for-guns exchange.

Anyone turning in a gun to a designated church during four weekends in May will receive a $100 grocery certificate from local markets. Sponsors said they hope to remove more than 400 guns from city homes.

“We hope the message will touch the hearts of younger people,” said Marie Treadwell, president of Long Beach’s branch of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People. “Those who are in gangs and have a gun . . . we hope they will turn that gun in.”

The City Council agreed to co-sponsor the effort Tuesday with the NAACP, community groups and a coalition of churches. The plan was introduced by Mayor Ernie Kell, who said he expects most major supermarkets in the city will donate certificates.

Similar exchanges have become popular throughout the country in recent months, with guns being exchanged for concert tickets in Los Angeles, toys in New York and car washes and Mighty Ducks hockey tickets in Orange County.

As with other exchanges, the Long Beach program will offer amnesty for gun holders, Kell said, and nobody will be asked where a gun came from.

Firearms will be collected by uniformed police officers and inspected. If a weapon was used in crime, it will be kept as evidence. All others will be destroyed, Kell said.

A total of 412 rifles and handguns were collected in a five-day period in Los Angeles in December, and Long Beach community leaders said they hope to match that number.

The city hopes to have $40,000 in grocery certificates to exchange for guns. The mayor’s office has contacted several supermarket chains but has not received firm commitments, said Tom Poe, Kell’s chief deputy.

The gun collection effort in Long Beach brings together several diverse groups, including the League of United Latin American Citizens, Federation of Filipino Americans, United Cambodian Community and the United Samoan Community, along with the NAACP.