New Program Offers Tickets in Exchange for Firearms : Safety: Churches will collect weapons--no questions asked--and give out Ticketmaster vouchers through the end of the year.

A .357 magnum will now get you into a Lakers game. An Uzi has become an admission pass to a Janet Jackson concert. A double-barreled shotgun can be exchanged for the movie tickets of your choice.

With the support of top elected officials and law enforcement personnel, Ticketmaster launched a guns-for-tickets exchange Friday aimed at rounding up some of the city’s tens of thousands of firearms.

Guns turned in before the end of the year at six area churches are good for two tickets to the Ticketmaster event of your choice--whether it is a movie, concert, play or sporting event. There will be no weapon collections on Sundays.

To participate, donors should unload the firearms, wrap up the weapons and put them in the trunks of their cars, officials said. Go to one of the churches--from Canoga Park to Venice to Lincoln Park--and the guns will be confiscated by a police officer with no questions asked.

“We don’t want to know who you are, where you came from or where you go,” Police Chief Willie L. Williams said. “It’s anonymous.”

In exchange for the weapon, special ticket machines have been placed in each of the churches to issue free vouchers. The guns will be melted down to keep them off the streets forever.

No one believes the program will end the urban arms race that has seen even preteens firing guns. But supporters say every gun that is collected is one that cannot be used to kill. The program is timed to coincide with--and clamp down on--the dangerous practice of firing guns into the air to ring in the new year.

“This is not a panacea for everything,” said Fred Rosen, president of Ticketmaster. “But you can’t take a journey until you take the first step.”

Similar programs have been tried in other cities and authorities are typically surprised by how many firearms they collect.

Oakland police collected 68 firearms--half of them pistols and half of them rifles--in one day last week. Albuquerque, N.M., netted 80 guns--including a Soviet-made AK-47 rifle and several sawed-off shotguns--in a month.

San Francisco’s program has collected 1,730 pistols, rifles and shotguns this year in exchange for $50 per gun.

The exchange is sponsored by KTTV Channel 11 and has been endorsed by Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti, Mayor Richard Riordan and City Council members Mark Ridley-Thomas, Mike Hernandez, Richard Alatorre and Nate Holden.

Although police will not investigate those turning in the firearms, officers do intend to review the serial numbers on the weapons to see if they were used in crimes.

“We’re under no illusion that the hard-core criminals are going to walk into a church and turn in their guns,” Williams said. But he said the program will help reduce accidental shootings and dangerous domestic disputes.

The churches will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. beginning today. There will be no collections Dec. 24, Dec. 25, Dec. 31 or Jan. 1.

The churches are Mt. Tabor Missionary Baptist Church, 6614 S. Western Ave.; the Blessed Sacrament, 6657 Sunset Blvd.; Our Lady Help the Christians, 512 South Ave. 20; Guardian Angel Catholic Church, 10886 Lehigh Ave., and New Bethel Baptist Church, 503 Brooks Ave.

The sixth church, Our Lady of the Valley, 22021 Gault St., will be open from 1 to 4 p.m. today. Beginning Monday, it will collect guns from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.