Confusion Mars Compton’s Gun Buyback Program : Safety: Officials had to renege on promise of amnesty from prosecution after learning it would be illegal. Number of weapons turned in falls short of goal.

They aimed to collect weapons from local ne’er-do-wells and gunslingers Saturday, but in the end, Compton city officials shot themselves--figuratively, at least--in the foot.

A heavily advertised gun buyback program at City Hall turned awkward when officials reneged on promises of immediate cash and amnesty from criminal prosecution. Even promised refreshments failed to materialize.

Gun-toting participants from as far away as Irvine crowded the exchange table, but tempers began to rise as city spokesman Frank K. Wheaton said donors would have to supply not only their names and addresses, but also a thumbprint. The guns would also be checked for past criminal involvement, said the city’s acting police chief.

“This isn’t what was advertised,” said an irritated Yolanda Latham, 32, of Compton. She and her husband, Bernard, 36, had come to exchange two aging shotguns. “Now they tell us they want fingerprints? I don’t think this is legal.”

In fact, what was illegal was the city’s initial plan to offer gun donors amnesty--a promise that was repeated throughout the week on radio news broadcasts, in news releases and on posters. The city changed its mind at the last minute after talking with the state attorney general’s office. Under state law, police cannot take a gun without noting the owner’s name, address and phone number.

As some buyback participants grumbled and demanded to know why they needed to leave a fingerprint, one would-be donor said he was irritated that he wouldn’t get his $75-per-gun bounty that afternoon. Like everyone else, he won’t get the check until this week.

“I thought they were going to have a big stack of money,” said James Abernathy, 73.

Instead of handing over his .22-caliber revolver, the Compton resident pocketed it and left.

Despite the confusion, city police and officials collected more than two dozen firearms, including an assortment of shotguns, antique military rifles and easily concealed, small-caliber pistols--so-called Saturday night specials.

Although Compton officials including Mayor Omar Bradley and acting Police Chief Ramone C. Allen hailed the event as a solid step forward in public safety, the final gun tally fell far short of their goal of 135. The city, with the help of county Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, had raised $10,000 for the program.

The mayor said he would have liked to offer amnesty from prosecution--in the hope that criminals would surrender their weapons--but said that was an unreasonable expectation.

“I don’t think that anybody who is involved in crime currently is going to want to bring a gun to City Hall,” Bradley said.

Latham, the mother of four who had complained about the fingerprinting, turned in her family’s two inherited shotguns. “Kids are curious, and we just want these guns out of the house,” she said.