Hundreds of Guns Collected During EP Gun Buyback

Last week we were visited by Senior Policy Adviser to County Commissioner Carlos Leon, Jackie Arroyo-Butler.

Butler, who is running for Leon’s County Commish seat, was in to tell us about El Paso’s 2^nd Annual Gun Buyback event. That event went down on Saturday at the County Coliseum.

Here are the results.

Over 450 guns and rifles were collected during the event, all of which will be destroyed by the County.  The incentives for turning in guns were prepaid Mastercard gift cards ranging from $50 for a non-working gun to $250 for an assault rifle, like the AR-15.

A similar number of guns were turned in at last year’s event.

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The question remains, how effective are these buybacks at reducing gun violence or accidental deaths? That is a very hotly debated topic and we posed the question to Butler. She told us that Commissioner Leon, a former El Paso Chief of Police, says, “We’ll never know the number of deaths that are prevented by taking just one gun off the streets”.

Following a 30-year career with the El Paso Police Department, retiring as chief of police, Leon has served over 10 years as County Commissioner of Precinct 1. Earlier this year, he announced he would not seek re-election.

Arroyo-Butler, who is running with Leon’s endorsement, got her political science degree from Vassar College and her Master’s in Business Administration from UTEP.

Commissioner Leon told us earlier this year that he plans to spend his retirement doing some travel with his wife of over 45 years, Bonnie…and spending more time with their children and three grandchildren.