Cars backed up a portion of 12th Street Saturday afternoon as they lined up to dispose their firearms.

Erie County District Attorney’s Office held their inaugural gun buyback event.

From noon to 4:00 p.m. Saturday, the Erie County District Attorney’s Office held their first gun buyback event.

Residents were able to bring rifles, handguns, shotguns and semi-automatic weapons to the Erie Fire Department to dispose of them in a safe way.

“We looked around the different counties and there were some counties that tried it and had success with it so we thought we would being it here to Erie,” said Elizabeth Hirz, Erie Co. District Attorney.

District Attorney Hirz told us this is an effort to reduce gun violence and keep weapons from falling into the wrong hands.

“A lot of people have situations where a spouse may have passed away, they don’t want the gun in the house in case of a home invasion or kids,” she said.

In exchange, residents received a gift card ranging from $100 to $200 based on the weapon they brought.

According to the district attorney’s office, the event is financed through their drug forfeiture funds and will have no cost to Erie County taxpayers.

With the recent mass shooting in Maine, gun violence is a topic of discussion. The district attorney said holding events like these keeps local communities safe.

“Anytime we can get a gun off the street and keep individuals safe that’s what we want to do so we’re just trying new initiatives to try to help people keep them safe,” Hirz went on to say.

All weapons became property of the Erie County Detective Bureau once the were surrendered.