LOS ANGELES, April 18 (Xinhua) -- The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD) kicked off another round of gun exchanges on Saturday to get people to turn in their weapons.

    The LASD said it has set up two stations in the city to accept guns turned in by their owners.

    By turning in their guns, people will get gift certificates that can be redeemed at local retailers.

    Pistols and rifles are good for 100-dollar certificates, while semiautomatic weapons deemed "assault rifles" are good for 200-dollar certificates, according to the LASD.

    Authorities do not plan to run ballistics tests on any of the collected firearms to match them up to unsolved crimes, in hopes that that will encourage Angelenos to participate in the program.

    The city has 70,000 dollars for the gun buy-back program, and the goal is to collect as many guns as possible, according to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

    "This is an opportunity to make a real difference for our children and families," the mayor said earlier. "It's a chance to take matters into our own hands and prevent the next tragic shooting and the next unnecessary murder."

    Since 2005, the Gifts for Guns program has been credited with taking about 3,000 guns out of circulation.

    Eventually, all the guns are melted at a foundry in and recycled into rebar and other products.