  Recent progress on the nature of short duration Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) has
shown that a fraction of them originate in the local universe. These systems
may well be the result of giant flares from Soft Gamma Repeaters (SGRs)
believed to be magnetars (neutron stars with extremely large magnetic fields >=
10^14 G). If these magnetars are formed via the core collapse of massive stars,
then it would be expected that the bursts should originate from predominantly
young stellar populations. However, correlating the positions of BATSE short
bursts with structure in the local universe reveals a correlation with all
galaxy types, including those with little or no ongoing star formation. This is
a natural outcome if, in addition to magnetars forming via the core collapse of
massive stars, they also form via Accretion Induced Collapse following the
merger of two white dwarfs, one of which is magnetic. We investigate this
possibility and find that the rate of magnetar production via WD-WD mergers in
the Milky Way is comparable to the rate of production via core collapse.
However, while the rate of magnetar production by core collapse is proportional
to the star formation rate, the rate of production via WD-WD mergers (which
have long lifetimes) is proportional to the stellar mass density, which is
concentrated in early-type systems. Therefore magnetars produced via WD-WD
mergers may produce SGR giant flares which can be identified with early type
galaxies. We also comment on the possibility that this mechanism could produce
a fraction of the observed short duration GRB population at low redshift.
