B.C. gun amnesty nets 1,184 unwanted firearms

A total of 1,184 firearms and thousands ofrounds of ammunition were turned into policeacross B.C. during last month's gun amnesty, the RCMP reported on Thursday.

The list of unwanted weapons recovered included 543 rifles, 223 shotguns and 222 handguns, as well as some explosives and a large number of replica firearms.

"I'm pretty happy with the results that we had here," said B.C. Public Safety Minister Mike Morris.

"All of these weapons in the wrong hands would result in tragedy. There's no questionin my mind."

The amnesty allowed people to turn in guns without facing weapons-related Criminal Code charges.

"Unless one of these guns has been used in the commission of a crime, it's simply no questions asked," said deputy commissioner CraigCallens, commanding officer of theRCMPin B.C.

Lots of calls

Throughout the month of October, there were 690 requests for police to collect firearms, weapons or ammunition from households in B.C.

"The intent of thisprogram is not to remove weapons from licensed gun owners who are lawfully in possession of their weapons and who want to keep them," said Chief Constable LesSylven, presidentof theB.C. Association of Chiefs of Police.

"This amnesty was designed for those people who had weapons they no longer wanted or needed and chose to take advantage of a safe way to voluntarily dispose of them."

Kelownaturns in most

In Kelowna, 109 firearms were surrendered, the largest number from any one municipality,according to firearms' amnesty final numbers.

The number of weapons recovered in Surrey was 74. In Vancouver, it was 46.

"Some of these weapons may have come into the possession of people during a time when different rules applied," said Slyven.

"In the1920s, 1930s, perhaps when regulations were a little different. And as time has changed, so have the rules, andpeople have found themselves in possession of something that was no longer lawful."

Weapons will be destroyed

The overwhelmingmajority of the confiscated weapons will be destroyed, according to the RCMP.

"At minimum, they would becutdowninto pieces of a size that would make it impossible for them to be utilized again," saidCallens.

"There will be the rare instance where there will be some intrinsic value in some of the firearms that have been recovered and that will be assessed by firearm specialists."

While amnesty month is over, there's nothing to preventthe public from continuing to contact police to dispose of unwanted firearms.

"Police will use their discretion when dealing with any future requests," said Callens.