{"id":30349,"date":"2023-12-02T21:31:24","date_gmt":"2023-12-03T04:31:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/farmington-gun-buyback-planned-before-covid\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T01:17:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:17:49","slug":"farmington-gun-buyback-planned-before-covid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/farmington-gun-buyback-planned-before-covid\/","title":{"rendered":"Farmington gun buyback planned before COVID"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Farmington
Farmington Police Chief Steve Hebbe discusses crime and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's public health order on guns and drugs during a Sept. 12 interview at the Farmington Police Department. (Tri-City Record file photo)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A gun buyback program through New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence<\/a> is coming to Farmington Dec. 9, with the purpose of providing Four Corners residents a safe alternative to discarding unwanted guns.<\/p>\n

The nonprofit organization partnered with the Farmington Police Department to host the event from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the parking lot on the corner of Municipal Drive and Navajo Street across from the Farmington Municipal Courthouse.<\/p>\n

Police Chief Steve Hebbe said he\u2019s not sure there have been gun buybacks here in the past, but it is \u201ccompletely voluntary.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if we\u2019ve done anything like this in San Juan County before, but it has been done around the state,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Gun buyback programs have been increasing across the state since Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham declared gun violence a public health crisis. The New Mexico State Police have organized them in Albuquerque, Las Cruces and Espa\u00f1ola.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are opportunities for our communities to come together and make a real impact on gun safety,\u201d New Mexico State Police Chief Troy Weisler said. \u201cWe aim to reduce the risks associated with firearms by providing a safe, anonymous way to surrender unwanted weapons.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Farmington buyback, although having the same goals as Weisler mentioned, was not planned as part of the governor\u2019s initiative. Hebbe said this has been in the works since before COVID.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t something that I\u2019d ever done in my career up in Anchorage, and obviously, we hadn\u2019t done it in Farmington, so I was a little unfamiliar with it,\u201d Hebbe said. \u201cWe had some discussions about what it looked like and what our goals were. Then unfortunately, COVID hit, and it actually kind of seemed like it stopped for them. They weren\u2019t doing as many, and I wasn\u2019t hearing from them much. So it\u2019s just, it\u2019s been kind of a circuitous route to get here, but we\u2019re here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Farmington
Farmington Police Chief Steve Hebbe<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

This will be the 19th gun buyback for New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence. The first was in 2016 in Santa Fe. Since that time, the organization has \u201ctaken in 2,000 firearms,\u201d and of those 40% were \u201csemi-automatic and AR-15-style weapons,\u201d according to Miranda Viscoli, co-president of New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence.<\/p>\n

The guns are dismantled on-site and then taken to Robert F. Kennedy High School in Albuquerque\u2019s South Valley, where they are turned into gardening tools, she said.<\/p>\n

New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence pays for the event and provides the gift cars, which will be given to people surrendering their guns. The role of the police department will be a support role, according to Viscoli.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur role really is just to check the weapons make sure that they\u2019re not loaded, and I think sometimes inadvertently, that still does happen, because sometimes the people turning in guns aren\u2019t really familiar with guns,\u201d Hebbe said.<\/p>\n

\"Some
Some of the guns collected at a June New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence buyback event in Santa Fe.<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cWe\u2019ll have people there who can make sure that guns are safe, before we turn them over to this group, and then we\u2019ll check the serial numbers to make sure they\u2019re not reported stolen,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd if they are reported stolen, well, then we\u2019ll take the necessary police action to reunite the gun with its rightful owner and see where we are as far as making a criminal case.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police, however, will not be making contact with people turning in the guns. It is a completely volunteer process and no information is retained on the person turning in the firearm, according to New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know exactly how this will work. We\u2019re learning too, but I don\u2019t think we\u2019re gonna even have much contact with the citizens as far as the police go,\u201d Hebbe said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to receive the gun from them. We\u2019re going to check it to make sure it\u2019s safe and check it to make sure it\u2019s not stolen and turn it back over to them. They\u2019ll handle the giving out the gift cards and the contact with the citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite this Hebbe does wonder how an event like this will be received in Farmington, but he looks at with similarity to the Drug Take Back program through the DEA. \u201cThis is just a way of partnering with a group that hey, if you want to get rid of your gun, great, bring it in, and these folks will take care of it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"This
This is an example of the types of garden tools made at Robert F. Kennedy Charter School by students who use dismantled guns to make garden tools. The guns are dismantled and provided from New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence buyback events.<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cI hope people see it as look, this is just a different option, and we\u2019re partnering with a group to help you know that this is an option. And if you don\u2019t want to do it, that\u2019s OK with me too,\u201d Hebbe said. \u201cI know that this the topic has gotten political, and I wish significantly that it had not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hebbe added this is the police \u201coffering people\u201d an opportunity to get rid of some guns, when they might not know how to do so. \u201cIf you don\u2019t know what to do with some guns, after your spouse passed away, or somebody\u2019s struggling, and you want to get rid of them, hey, here\u2019s a way you could do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hebbe said he also is \u201cfine\u201d with people who do not want to trade in their guns. \u201cI hope the community sees it that way is as this is the police department doing everything we can to provide you with options to help you.\u201d<\/p>\n

There have been cases in the area, where guns potentially should have been removed from a home because a family member was suffering from mental illness and then used the gun on themselves or others. But with an event like this, it is not the police telling people to surrender their guns, Hebbe said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, maybe your husband was a hunter. Or maybe, you know, once upon a time you had guns but now somebody in your family is struggling with mental health and you just want to get rid of the gun but you don\u2019t really know how, oh, you know, OK, we\u2019ll give you a way of doing it,\u201d Hebbe said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s completely no pressure, of course, you know, there\u2019s nothing from the government saying, \u2018Oh, you need to turn in your guns,\u2019\u201d Hebbe said. \u201cThis is just if you want to do it and you\u2019ve run out of options, you don\u2019t really know where to turn \u2013 here\u2019s a way you can go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those turning in guns will receive a gift card valued at between $100 and $250 depending on the type of gun, and according to Viscoli. Gift cards will be from Chevron Gas, Target, Walmart, Amazon, and Smiths.<\/p>\n

New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence also will be handing out gun locks to gun owners free of charge during the event.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

hopes it is well-received by community<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30350,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-30349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30349"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81052,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30349\/revisions\/81052"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30349"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=30349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}