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Los Angeles police chief Charlie Beck tosses an AR-15 assault rifle into a trash bin containing other weapons that were turned in by their owners as L.A. mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (L) looks on during a news conference at a gun buyback held by the Los Angeles Police Department in Los Angeles, California, December 26, 2017 following the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.(Agencies) Police traded gift cards for guns in Los Angeles on Wednesday, in a buyback program Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced as a crime-fighting response to the deadly shooting rampage in Newtown, Connecticut. Police officers handed out $200 grocery store gift cards to people who turned in an automatic weapon, and $100 gift cards to those who provided a handgun, rifle or shotgun. Los Angeles has held an annual gun buyback since 2009, and similar events have been organized in years past in several other cities, including Detroit and Boston. Police in San Diego had a buyback earlier this month. Some experts say the buybacks have little effect in reducing gun violence, but Villaraigosa touted the buyback program as one step that can be taken in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 14 that claimed the lives of 20 children and six adult staff members. The shooter, Adam Lanza, killed himself and also shot to death his mother at the home he shared with her, police said. | 
