Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca announced the destruction of more than 8,000 weapons confiscated from criminals in Los Angeles County on Thursday.
Annually, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works transport the weapons to Gerdau Steel Mill, a Rancho Cucamonga company that donates its furnace, equipment and personnel to convert the guns into steel rebar, according to a Los Angeles Sheriff's Department press release.
Dubbed “Project Isaiah,'' the annual gun destruction gets its name from the Biblical passage in the Book of Isaiah (Isaiah 2:4) that calls for swords to be beaten into plowshares as a way of bringing peace.
The weapons will be melted into steel reinforcing bar (rebar) and ultimately transformed into elements of construction for upgrades in freeways and bridges in Arizona, California and Nevada, the release states.
“These weapons that you see here will never again be used to commit a crime or used to threaten or intimidate an innocent victim,'' Baca said in a prepared statement.
Twenty law enforcement agencies have contributed confiscated weapons to this program. These agencies include Bell Gardens, Beverly Hills, Burbank, California Highway Patrol, Claremont, Culver City, El Segundo, Hawthorne, Hermosa Beach, Inglewood, La Verne, Long Beach, Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, UCLA Police, Pasadena, Santa Monica, South Pasadena, Union Pacific Railroad Police, West Covina, and Whittier.
