Montgomery County offering up to $200 in gun buyback program

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. - Montgomery County is once again offering cash for any firearms you’re willing to give up. 

It's the third annual gun buyback program in Rockville, led by the city’s police department and Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy. The event comes on the heels of a federal appeals court decision last week upholding Maryland’s ban on assault-style weapons.

"If you have an assault weapon of some type that you would like to turn in now, knowing that the law was upheld as not being violative of the Second Amendment, bring it down and we’ll also give you a gift card. For people who turn in functioning handguns, we give $100. For assault weapons and ghost guns, we offer $200," McCarthy said.

Maryland passed an assault weapons ban in 2013 after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals was split but upheld the law, reasoning that states are allowed to take a variety of approaches to the nation’s mass shooting crisis. McCarthy says this is the community’s way to tackle gun violence, although some studies, including a working paper by the National Bureau of Economics, suggest buyback programs do not reduce gun violence.

McCarthy says the guns they receive this weekend will be melted down and destroyed. During the most recent legislative session, Maryland lawmakers tried to pass a bill requiring all jurisdictions to destroy guns from buyback programs, but the effort died in the House.

The event will be on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at RedGate Park in Rockville. You won’t have to show an ID, and no questions will be asked by law enforcement.