They must bee really taking Butter songs to heart in the LBC! Check it out! Gangsta Rap glorifing death and gun toting gang bangers and husting bitches has been replaced by low riders bumping Hot Buttered Rum! For Realz, yo!

In lean times SoCal gun owners trade arms for eats

By THOMAS WATKINS Associated Press Writer
Posted: 12/07/2008 08:48:20 AM PST


LOS ANGELES—The guns versus butter economic model appears to be tilting in the dairy spread's favor in one inner city neighborhood, where record numbers of gun owners are giving up their weapons in return for gift cards to buy food and other goods.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department ended its annual Gifts for Guns program in Compton on Sunday, allowing residents to anonymously relinquish firearms in return for $100 gift cards for Ralphs supermarkets, Target department stores or Best Buy electronics stores. People get double that amount for turning in assault rifles.

In years past, Target and Best Buy were the cards of choice, with residents wanting electronic goods and other presents for the holidays. In this recessionary year, however, things are different.

"The majority of the people want the food cards," said sheriff's Sgt. Byron Woods. "People just don't have the money to buy the food these days."

Authorities said Sunday that a record 965 firearms and two hand grenades were handed in during the two weekends the program was in operation. That's more than in any other year and easily eclipses last year's total of 387 guns collected over both weekends.

"One guy said he had just got laid off from his job," Woods said. "He turned in five guns and said it would really help him to put food on the family's table."

By the time sheriff's deputies finished totaling up guns collected on Saturday and Sunday they expected to have about 1,000.

Gun owners dropped their weapons off at a local grocery store parking lot, where a deputy pulled them from the trunks of cars—no questions asked. The weapons are tested to see if they have been used in crimes, then destroyed.

Compton, a working-class city of about 95,000 in southern Los Angeles County, has long struggled against gang and gun violence. Its troubled history has been chronicled in such gangsta rap albums as N.W.A.'s "Straight Outta Compton."

The annual drive started in 2005 after a spike in killings, though the murder rate has since dropped.

It is similar to those conducted in other parts of the country, including San Francisco and New York.

"It is so important to get these guns off the streets," Woods said. "You never know where (they) could have ended up."

He said most of those who turn in weapons are "family people."

"They want some money to help take care of their families," Woods added.

Some people rummaged in closets or under beds to pull out antique weapons that had been in the family for years. One man brought in a Soviet-era semiautomatic carbine.

"If that got into the wrong hands of gang bangers, they could kill several people within minutes," Woods said. "Our biggest fear is a house getting burglarized and these guns getting taken."

Most of the approximately $100,000 needed to pay for this year's gift cards comes from Los Angeles County. The three stores and the city of Compton, which contracts with the county Sheriff's Department for police protection, also donate funds.