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More than 500 firearms handed in during gun surrender run by police

| November 29, 2017

High Wycombe Police Station. (Archive picture)

More than 500 firearms have been handed in as part of a two week gun surrender run by Thames Valley Police along with Hampshire Constabulary.

Launched on Monday 13th November 2017 the Firearms and Ammunition Surrender urged people to take the opportunity to hand in any unwanted or illegal firearms to police, so that they could be disposed of safely.

387 items (including firearms and ammunition) were handed in across the Thames Valley. Including nineteen at High Wycombe police station, thirty one at Aylesbury police station and thirty eight at Amersham police station.

Items surrendered included antiques, starter pistols, deactivated and imitation firearms and BB guns.

Thames Valley Police joined police forces across the country to take part in the national campaign run by the National Ballistics Intelligence Service (NABIS). During the campaign, those surrendering firearms did not face prosecution for the illegal possession upon surrender and can remain anonymous. However, the gun surrender was not an amnesty and if further examination of a surrendered firearm reveals a link to a crime, this will be investigated.

Chief Inspector Emma Baillie, Head of Armed Response for Hampshire and Thames Valley, said: ‘We would like to thank everyone who handed in any firearms or ammunition as part of this surrender.

This means that there are fewer firearms and imitation firearms on our streets which could have easily fallen into the hands of criminals.

As a result our neighbourhoods are much safer, both for our residents and for our officers who work every day and night to protect them.

We are very pleased that so many people took the opportunity to take part in this initiative and the number of firearms recovered certainly proves how valuable such a surrender is.

Now that the surrender is over Police are advising anyone who finds a firearm or are uncertain about the lawful possession of a firearm to please call the police non emergency number 101 or 999 in an emergency. Alternatively you can call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

The number of items handed in during the surrender (including firearms and ammunition) was as follows :

Police station Items handed in (firearms and ammunition)
Abingdon 54
Amersham 38
Aylesbury 31
Banbury 28
Bicester 16
Bracknell 21
High Wycombe 19
Loddon Valley 44
Maidenhead 17
Milton Keynes 43
Newbury 18
Oxford 14
Reading 13
Slough 10
Witney 21

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