Lake Co. residents swap 243 guns for gift cards

Lake County residents sent 243 firearms to the scrap furnaces this weekend in the county's sixth police-sponsored gun buy-back program.

The Lake County Chiefs of Police Association and Lake County Crime Stoppers traded $50 gift cards for the weapons, which were turned in at eight area police stations.

"People always ask if this is worth the money and the effort," said Andy Anderson, Crime Stoppers director. "And we always reply, if one life is saved because an unwanted gun is not in a house, then it was worth it."

The effort has seen a total of 1,808 weapons turned in as part of programs run from 2001 to 2003, and again from 2005 through this year.

Sheriff Mark Curran stressed that only unwanted guns were collected.

"In no way should this be interpreted as an infringement of anyone's Second Amendment rights," Curran said. "All guns were forfeited voluntarily."

Two long tables of firearms greeted visitors to a Monday news conference at the sheriff's office in Waukegan.

All manner of rifles, shotguns and handguns were on display, and Anderson said each of the weapons collected this year was in working order.

Exotic and illegal weapons were among the take, including two sawed-off rifles and three sawed-off shotguns.

No one who brought in an illegal weapon will be prosecuted, Curran said, because ownership would be difficult or impossible to establish in court.

Police agencies in Fox Lake, Gurnee, Lake Forest, Lake Zurich, Buffalo Grove, Mundelein, North Chicago and Round Lake Park participated in this year's program.

All of the weapons will be tested at the crime lab, cataloged and destroyed, Anderson said.