PITTSBURG >> Pittsburg police have added another tool in their belt to help stem violence and get guns off the streets with a new buyback program.

The City Council has approved the $100,000 expenditure using previously unbudgeted proceeds from the city-owned Pittsburg Power Co.

The last gun buyback programs in 2014 and 2016 were a success, netting a total of 300 guns off Pittsburg streets, Police Chief Steve Albanese said.

“The overall goal of programs like this is to remove guns off the street and out of our community,” the chief said at last week’s council meeting.

Under the program, police buy back guns residents no longer want, exchanging them for gift cards that can be used for gas, food, restaurants and more. Police will eventually destroy the firearms, according to officials.

The program “provides a safe and simple process where community members can sell or dispose of their unwanted firearms permanently,” Albanese said.

In some cases, they are guns that a family member inherits and are passed down from generation to generation, the chief said. Some might not even work. Police propose to pay $200 for assault rifles or ghost guns; $100 for handguns; rifles and shotguns; and $50 for inoperable firearms.

Besides providing a simple way to dispose of guns, the buyback program also aims to raise awareness of the risk of firearms and to reduce their availability in Pittsburg and the surrounding community, the police chief said. He also noted a big component of the program will be education, educating the residents through social media about the risks and how to safely store firearms.

Albanese noted the program is similar to others held recently in the Bay Area.

“San Mateo County, Marin County and Oakland all just completed buyback programs in June. All were very successful, some with a little bit higher numbers than others,” he said. “The lowest number we saw was 130 guns from one of those programs and the highest was 550. So pretty significant as far as helping our communities out.”

Pittsburg’s program follows on the heels of a 90-day campaign police began on June 1 to curb violent crimes and reduce gun violence, in particular. During the special enforcement operation, local police are teaming up with state and federal law enforcement agencies to get illegal firearms off the streets, make felony arrests and curtail other criminal activity.

Since the campaign began, 75 illegal guns have been taken off Pittsburg streets and out of the hands of criminals, Albanese said. “That’s almost one a day every day,” the chief added.

Of those, 20 were ghost guns and 29 were unregistered firearms. Of those arrested, 52% were not from Pittsburg, according to Albanese.

Mayor Holland Barrett White said though he was skeptical about whether the gun buyback program would help reduce violent crime, “the cost of doing nothing was far greater.”

“When you see 75 recovered guns, I think that speaks volumes for the need of a program like this,” he said. “This is a really good starting point.”

The council approved the measure 4-0, with Councilwoman Merl Craft absent.

For more information on the buyback program, check the Pittsburg police Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pittsburgpd where police will be announcing the buyback dates.