11:12pm UK, Monday December 08, 2008

A scheme in California has brought in a record number of weapons as residents hit hard by the economy trade firearms for groceries.

Part of an arsenal of weapons handed in during a gun amnesty

An arsenal of weapons handed in during a gun amnesty

The annual Gifts for Guns programme is organised inCompton, a city south of Los Angeles that has long struggled with gun and gang violence.

Los Angeles allows residents to anonymously hand in weapons in return for gift cards worth £66 at various stores, including a supermarket.

Turning in assault rifles yields double that amount.

Sheriff's Sergeant Byron Woods said that this year most people asked for the supermarket cards.

Authorities said a record 965 firearms and two hand grenades were handed in during the two weekends the scheme was in operation.

That is more than in any other year and easily eclipses last year's total of 387 guns.

One man brought in a Soviet-era semi-automatic carbine.

"If that got into the wrong hands of gangbangers, they could kill several people within minutes," Sgt Woods said.

"Our biggest fear is a house getting burglarised and these guns getting taken."

Compton's violent history has been chronicled in such gangsta rap albums as N.W.A.'s "Straight Outta Compton".

But Sgt Woods said most of the residents who turned in weapons were "family people".

"One guy said he had just got laid off from his job," Sgt. Woods said.

"He turned in five guns and said it would really help him to put food on the family's table."

Gun owners dropped their weapons off at a local grocery store parking lot, where a deputy sherriff 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.