Firearms surrender campaign hailed a success

The campaign, which began on Monday 3 November and ended yesterday, gave anyone with a firearm living in the area the opportunity to surrender it at their local police station.

In Shropshire 119 firearms were handed in - 71 at Shrewsbury Police Station and 48 at Malinsgate Police Station.

In the West Mercia policing area, 299 people took the opportunity to surrender firearms, handing in a total of 328 items.

All of the weapons have now been made safe and most of them will be taken away to be cut up and melted down. Exceptionally rare weapons or those with high historical value may be donated to a museum.

Superintendent Charles Hill said: “We have been overwhelmed by the public response to this campaign and we’d like to thank every person who has taken this opportunity to surrender a firearm for us to dispose of safely. It is great to see that there are so many people as committed as we are to making our region even safer and protecting people from harm.

“We’re fortunate not to have a major gun crime problem in the region but we do have a large number of legally owned firearms and other older firearms in people’s possession and unfortunately these sometimes fall into the wrong hands and end up being used in crime. Every single one of these weapons handed in is one less opportunity for this to happen.

“The majority of firearms handed in were older items that are or have been legally owned but the owner no longer needs them and wants to see them safely disposed of. A lot of the weapons were discovered in houses, often by relatives of people who have passed away, and handed in to us.”

The Police and Crime Commissioner for West Mercia, Bill Longmore, added: “I’m very pleased with the number of people that have handed weapons in. It was a good initiative that the police took up, and it’s nice to think that so many firearms have been handed in, which now will never stand the chance of falling into the wrong hands.”