A senior Tasmanian police officer has praised the response to a gun amnesty, at Longford, Tas, on the weekend.
Deloraine’s Inspector Scott Flude said 66 guns, and gun parts, had been handed in.
“That took a lot of guns, ammunition and parts of guns off the street – it was a really good take up,” Inspector Flude said.
The amnesty removed the potential for the firearms to fall into criminal hands.
Acting Sergeant Sam Lloyd said there would be no penalty or charges for anyone who handed in firearms.
“Firearms are part of the Northern Midlands community, and people often come into possession of unwanted or unregistered guns,” Sgt Lloyd said.
“People can come into possession of these types of guns through a variety of ways and it often involves circumstances beyond their control.”
A Tasmania police spokesperson said since September 2013, 712 firearms had been handed throughout the state, at site specific amnesty operations.
Sgt Lloyd said the final tally was 66 guns, one crossbow, one silencer and 1500 rounds of ammunition.
“We had a mix of local people and people coming in from varying places around the state, one even came from Hobart,”Sgt Lloyd said.
“We had a variety of guns, a mixture of longarms – rifles, shotguns and pistols, including a number of replicas, and a semi-automatic rifle, similar to an AK47, with a large amount of ammunition.
He said the amnesty was intended to raise the profile of the police “no questions asked” policy, on illegal guns.
“A lot of people, particularly older people, did say they were not aware we have a ‘no questions asked’ policy of handing in guns, at any time of the year,” he said.
“If they are not registered, in the event guns are mishandled or stolen, they won’t get reported to us and we don’t have a true indication of what is out there.”
Inspector Flude said a further amnesty would be held at Campbell Town, in the New Year.
