Sheriff’s Office hosts gun buyback event in Belmont

The buyback event is hosted by the Sheriff’s Office in partnership with Citizens for San Mateo County Gun Buyback, a local community group. Other law enforcement agencies participating include the Belmont Police Department, the Menlo Park Police Department and the Redwood City Police Department.

“Our goal is just to make the community safer,” Al Comolli, a member of Citizens for San Mateo County Gun Buyback, said. “Our whole take on it was if we could just save one life, it’s worth it.”

The gun buyback event is a “safe and anonymous avenue” for residents to remove firearms from their homes, Sheriff Christina Corpus said in a press release. No information is collected from residents who bring in guns.

“Turning in unwanted firearms helps prevent tragic accidents involving unsecure firearms and is another strategy to help prevent firearms from ending up in the wrong hands,” Corpus said.

The Sheriff’s Office began hosting gun buyback events in 2018, and since then have collected nearly 3,000 firearms that have been safely destroyed, according to the press release. At the last buyback event held in May 2024, the Sheriff’s Office obtained 297 firearms, including 24 assault weapons, four ghost guns and one machine gun.

The buyback program was announced Monday, two weeks after Corpus was questioned about the program by Supervisor Jackie Speier at a budget presentation held June 24.

Speier noted that approximately $50,000 was budgeted for buybacks this year, and yet no event had been held since May 2024. Corpus responded there was one scheduled in San Carlos this month, but the announcement Monday states it will be in August in Belmont. The funds, which are included in the Sheriff’s Office annual budget, go toward the cash incentives awarded to residents who turn in weapons.

Free gun locks will also be distributed at the event.

The buyback event will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 9, at 400 Harbor Blvd. in Belmont.