Lines of cars with guns stashed in backseats or trunks stretched for miles at various points around the city on Saturday as thousands clamored for cash in exchange for anonymously offering their unwanted firearms to police.

This box filled with pistols was dropped off by a gun owner on Saturday, May 8, 2010. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, LAPD and faith-based groups hold second citywide Gun Buyback program aimed at reducing gun violence in the city. In exchange for guns, residents were given prepaid Visa cards or Ralph's gift certificates. The Valley buy-back location is the Facey Medical Center Parking Lot in Mission Hills, California. | See photo gallery. (John McCoy/staff photographer)

Los Angeles police officers asked no questions about where the guns were coming from or why they were being turned in as they collected an assortment of weapons ranging from rusted vintage revolvers and tiny derringers to sawed-off shotguns, AK-47s and black-matte machine guns.

"The less guns we have in Los Angeles, the less homicides we'll have," said Police Chief Charlie Beck at a morning news conference in Boyle Heights, where six people were shot, two fatally, overnight.

Handguns, rifles and shotguns fetched a $100 prepaid Visa card or Ralph's gift card, and assault guns garnered $200 each.

"I could use some extra money for groceries," said one North Hollywood man who declined to give his name as he waited to turn in a handgun and two .22-caliber rifles in the parking lot of Facey Medical Center in Mission Hills. "They've just been sitting in the closet as long as I've been alive."

Several people said that the guns were gifts or hand-me-downs that they had no use for. Others had been avid hunters or trappers, but no longer had time for their hobbies.

"I've had it since I was 15 and my son don't want it," said Richard Luberacki, 77, of Newbury Park, of the shotgun he was turning in. "I thought it'd be for a good cause."

The exchange was part of the city's 2nd annual Gun Buy Back Initiative, an effort aimed at getting guns off the street in hopes of cutting down on homicides and violent crime.

"There are guns laying in drawers in houses throughout Los Angeles and those guns are of no use to anyone," said Beck, adding that he was hoping to see a large number of small, concealable handguns, the type most often used in violent crimes. "They are going to fall into the wrong hands, either the burglar that comes into your house and they turn it over to a gang members...or into your children's hands."

About 1,700 guns were gathered at last year's buy-back, and officials hoped to hit 2,500 this year, although the program only had a budget of $200,000.

Gift cards began running out around noon at the Mission Hills location, but some people still chose to drop off their guns. Others, despite waiting in line for more than two hours, left when they heard that the cash was gone.

"It's a bad economy and people are just wanting to make up for it," said Kelly Koskella, 48, of Valencia.

She and her husband were hoping to get the Visa card for a small .28-caliber handgun and planned to use that to buy a new gun.

Officers checked the guns to see if they were unloaded, pointing them into a barrel filled with sand. After they were cleared, they were threaded with wire from the barrel through the chamber. Intact serial numbers were taken down to find out if stolen guns could be reunited with proper owners, although because the program promised anonymity they did not track who turned in which guns.

The guns that weren't stolen will then be melted down.

"Homicides and violence are down every year for the last eight years now, yet there are still too many," Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said. "So today...we're working to buy back weapons guns, rifles, assault weapons - weapons that don't have any place on the streets of Los Angeles," he said.

The number of guns collected was not available Saturday.