White House to Offer $14-Million Gun Buyback

Opening a new front in the debate over gun violence, the Clinton administration will announce today the federal government’s largest effort to buy firearms now in private hands.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development will provide $14 million in grants to police departments and public housing authorities in communities across the country, enabling local officials to buy back and destroy as many as 280,000 guns.

“While you are working on reducing the sale of guns to people who shouldn’t have them, you also have to do something about reducing the number of guns that are currently in circulation,” HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday.

Since some cities have drawn criticism for reselling guns purchased in buyback programs, the HUD initiative will require municipalities to agree to destroy any weapons they buy, officials said. Only stolen guns--which will be returned to their legal owners--or guns needed for police investigations will be exempted.

Gun buyback programs have become increasingly popular with mayors and police chiefs in recent years--though there is little decisive evidence of their effectiveness. Hoping to provide firmer answers, HUD plans to spend $1 million on a study of buybacks, including its own new program.

President Clinton is scheduled to announce the gun initiative today in a ceremony at the White House. At the session, he will be joined by mayors and police chiefs from around the country, including several from Southern California.

The local officials also are expected to lobby lawmakers in support of gun control measures that the administration wants passed, including a controversial proposal to impose strict new background check requirements on all firearm transactions at gun shows and pawnshops. The proposals have remained stalled in Congress since the Senate approved them in May, responding in part to the public outcry that followed the shootings that took 15 lives at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., a month earlier.

The new buyback plan will use existing federal funds and congressional approval will not be required. Cities and public housing authorities that want to participate must apply to HUD, which then will provide grants based on an evaluation of the proposals. HUD officials said that they intend to disburse the first money by November.

The program drew cautious applause from law enforcement and gun control groups but was greeted with skepticism from the National Rifle Assn.

Wayne LaPierre, the NRA’s executive vice president, said that the group is “not opposed” to buyback programs but considers them mostly “sound bites and photo ops” that have no “impact on a criminal . . . or a violent juvenile that wants a gun.” Rather than investing in buyback programs, LaPierre said, the administration could do more to discourage gun violence by increasing funding for prosecuting violations of existing gun laws.

“This is certainly not the answer to our problem but it does help and we have to use and adapt any reasonable method we can to reduce the level of violence in these communities,” said Hubert Williams, president of the Police Foundation in Washington.

Supporters view buyback programs as a way to reduce the number of guns in circulation and in particular an opportunity to reduce the risk of accidental shootings by removing guns from homes. Critics consider the programs a largely cosmetic effort unlikely to have much impact in a nation where more than 200 million guns are in circulation. “You can’t make a dent,” said LaPierre. “What you can make is a headline.”

Critics and supporters alike agree that buybacks tend to attract weapons from law-abiding citizens, rather than criminals. But program proponents maintain that even removing old family guns buried in the attic can reduce the risk of shootings.

“It probably has less effect on people with criminal intentions,” said Naomi Paisse, communications director for Handgun Control Inc., a leading gun control advocacy group. “But if we save even 20 kids a year from an accidental shooting because an old gun has gotten out of a home, that’s certainly worth doing.”

This year alone, buyback programs have been launched in New York City, Washington and Atlanta, as well as smaller cities such as Dayton, Ohio, and South Bend, Ind.

The city of Compton recently attempted a buyback program--though the effort foundered because officials said they could not accept guns without obtaining the names and addresses of those selling them. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is offering vouchers good for a $230 payment to anyone who turns in a semiautomatic assault rifle. In late August, Los Angeles police Chief Bernard C. Parks offered a new wrinkle on the buyback idea, proposing tax credits, rather than cash, for owners who turn in their guns.

Cuomo said that conversations with municipal officials made clear that more cities would pursue gun buyback programs if they had the funds for them. “Funding is a barrier to communities who want to do this,” he said.

HUD will encourage, but not require, the cities participating to pay no more than $50 per gun--which could stretch the $14 million to cover as many as 280,000 guns.

Under the program, no city can receive more than $500,000. Cities will be required to establish the collection points for the purchases near public housing projects, many of which are located in high-crime areas. HUD hopes that will lead “to clearing out more guns in the immediate area of the housing authority than anywhere else,” one department official said.

Among those expected to attend today’s White House event and a Capitol Hill rally in support of the pending gun control measures are Mayors Bill Bogaard of Pasadena, Beverly O’Neill of Long Beach, Miguel A. Pulido Jr. of Santa Ana, David Eshleman of Fontana and Harriet Miller of Santa Barbara.

Times staff writers Matt Lait and Tina Daunt in Los Angeles and Richard Simon in Washington contributed to this story.