Fort Worth police are asking for your guns and will pay you with a $50 Visa card

The Fort Worth Police Department wants your guns and they’ll give you a $50 Visa card for them, no questions asked.

After an eight-year hiatus, the department will host its fourth gun buyback program this year from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday in the parking lot behind All Saints Catholic Church, 2006 N. Houston St., which is in the department’s North Division.

The department has collected 148 guns this year at buyback events, said spokeswoman Lt. Paula Fimbres.

The program began years ago at the request of a minister in the Polytechnic/Stop Six area in response to the increase of gun violence, Fimbres said.

The program is designed to reach out to single-parent, low-income families where supervision of children is lacking and there may be a gun in the residence, she said.

Police ask that the gun not be loaded when it’s dropped off. The gift cards are bought with money from seized assets, the department said. The guns are destroyed, she said.

Buybacks became popular about 20 years ago as a way to get guns off the street. Fort Worth had canceled the program in 1994, but revived it 15 years later. In 2009, people turned in 140 guns.

This story was originally published December 7, 2017 at 3:34 PM with the headline "Fort Worth police are asking for your guns and will pay you with a $50 Visa card."