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Let's try this again, after the admittedly funny error on my previous attempt.
I have. A couple of years ago I went to one. I was in another state, CA, visiting my cousin. I arrived when it started and told them I was a free-lance journalist who wanted to watch an entire buy-back. (I have occasionally written about events I have seen and sold them.) I promised to stay out of the way and not interfer, I would only watch.
It was a smaller event, with only a couple of hundred guns being turned in. The offer a $50 grocery gift card was for any working gun. The cards were entirely donated by the store.
I considered it a great move by the store. Great PR, certain to be on all the local news, and the person who comes in with the gift card will be almost certain to buy other stuff too. An excellent investment of advertising bucks for them.
The local TV camera crews came in about 2PM, and were amazing ignorant about guns. I was tempted to try to educate them, but kept my promise and stayed out of the way, just listened.
I was allowed to stand close enough to see the makes and models of the guns.
The guns that were being turned in were junk guns. I saw bunches of older rabbit and squirrel guns. (.22LR caliber rifles.) One lady brought one in that she had inherited when her grandfather died, had been in her closet for years, so she was turning in his old "assault gun", before her eight-yr old boy found it. It was an old .22, and it was still loaded. For her, turning in the gun was the definately right thing to do.
I saw a few, very few, actual nice hunting rifles turned it, and a few nice shotguns. One was a beauty that would have fetched a nice price.
I did not see a single military style rifle turned in. No AK or AR pattern rifles. Nothing that remotely looked military.
Lots of single shot shotguns, including a few that were sawed off to pistol length were turned in. One guy turned in six single shot shotguns. I suspect that he had probably paid about $15 apiece for them, on the street.
Among handguns, I saw lots of so called "Saturday Night Specials". Junk guns, I call them. Ravens, Titans, RGs, etc. Put two boxes of ammo through some of the brands and the screws will start to work out and the gun falls apart in your hand. I saw exactly ONE .45 auto, and 3 or 4 9mm pistols of good quality, and about 5 or 6 .38/.357 revolvers of good quality. Everything else was junk that would not even be worth a pawnbroker's time. (I don't know if pawnshop in CA handle guns. In TX they usually do.)
One couple was funny. They had taken a good quality 9mm, and hacksawed off the trigger guard and trigger before turning the gun in. The gun and the pieces were in a kitchen plastic baggie. They were beaming with pride at their personal victoy in having destroyed a hated gun.
I saw some guns that were in horrible states of repair. They were ready for the trash.
Conclusion: With some few exceptions, the turned in guns were worth less than the $50 grocery gift card. Some of the people who turned in guns were quite ignorant of guns, and a few were fairly well informed - at least well informed enough to know their piece of junk wasn't worth $50.
Everyone who turned in a gun did the right thing - for them. They turned something of no value to them into $50. And many of them had no business being anywhere near a gun because they didn't know enough about them to be safe with them.
I don't think the streets were made any safer. But a few homes are safer because some people realized their ignorance, realized that they didn't want to learn about guns, and got rid of the gun in their homes.
I have some very old guns that are junk. I am watching the local news for the next gun buy-back around here and will turn some old worthless guns into some groceries. But I won't be selling my good stuff for only $50.
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