39 firearms handed in locally during surrender campaign
A two week firearms surrender campaign led to 39 items being handed in at Malinsgate and Shrewsbury police stations.
The campaign, which began on Saturday 20 July and ended on Sunday 4 August, gave anyone with a firearm living in the area the opportunity to surrender it at their local police station.
In Shrewsbury 13 firearms were handed in, whilst 26 firearms were surrendered at Malinsgate police station.
Across the West Mercia Police force area, 103 firearms were handed in with people also taking the opportunity to surrender 41 rounds of ammunition.
Following the surrender, Superintendent Mel Crowther said: "We have been really pleased with 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.
"Although we don't have a major gun crime problem within the region, 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 so thank you to everyone who took part."
West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner John Campion said: "As is always the case, these surrenders have again proven their worth with more than 100 firearms removed from circulation. I am grateful to our communities who have taken the positive step to surrender these items and help make us all even safer."
