To model the situation where Russel wants his total cost for 3 identical gift cards (let's denote the cost of each gift card as \(c\)) to be no more than $2 above or below $60, we first need to capture how much he desires to spend.
The total cost of 3 gift cards is \(3c\). Russel wants this total cost to be between $58 and $62, inclusive. We can express this requirement mathematically with the following inequality:
\[ 58 \leq 3c \leq 62 \]
This can be rearranged into a single absolute value inequality. To do that, we can rewrite it as:
\[ |3c - 60| \leq 2 \]
This expression captures the idea that the distance of \(3c\) from $60 should be at most $2.
Thus, the correct option that represents the situation is:
A. \(|3c - 60| \leq 2\)