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LAPD gun buyback yields rocket launchers

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Published: Dec. 29, 2012 at 10:43 AM

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Los Angeles police said they were tracing the origin of two disabled rocket launchers turned in at a gun-buyback event this week.

The launchers could not be fired. However, the LAPD reached out to the military to track down where they came from and if they had ever been reported stolen.

Weapons experts told CNN the launchers appeared to be the tube portion of the AT4, which is used as an anti-tank weapon. The tubes are thrown away once the rocket has been fired.

"They don't have capability to discharge anything anymore," said LAPD Detective Gus Villanueva, who added the people who turned them in said they had family members who had been in the military and they no longer "wanted the launchers in their homes."

The buy-back even netted 2,037 weapons, which were exchanged for supermarket gift cards.

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