The Coalition Against Gun Violence and its partners did their part to remove firearms from Santa Barbara households on Saturday morning, collecting 238 weapons during the Sixth Annual Anonymous Gun Buyback. Five assault weapons were among the firearms exchanged for Smart & Final gift cards. In the six years of the volunteer program, 1,407 weapons have been relinquished.
Removing weapons from households has been among the goals for the coalition since it formed in 1994, emphasizing that not only are guns used in homicides but also that accidental discharges cause serious injuries. Gun deaths also include suicide. According to the UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Program, 60 percent of gun deaths in 2019 were death by firearm suicide.
Among deaths by firearm in the U.S. that year, 37 percent were homicides, but researchers see the trend increasing during the pandemic. In a preprint article , the Davis program estimated 2.1 million more gun purchases were made in March-May 2020, based on the FBI Criminal Background Check System used when legal gun purchases are made. That's 64.3 percent more than the expected volume. At the same time, a statistical increase in firearm violence was recorded — an additional 776 fatal and nonfatal injuries in the U.S. over the number expected had there been no increase in purchases.