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Battlefords RCMP to participate in gun amnesty program

Mar 27, 2018 | 2:00 PM

The Battlefords RCMP detachment will join police forces from around Saskatchewan in the first ever provincial gun amnesty program, which begins Thursday.

The month-long program is designed to help provide residents with a safe way to dispose of unwanted, documented or undocumented firearms and weapons, as well as restricted or prohibited firearms that have not been used in a crime.

“This amnesty will allow for residents to surrender these types of weapons without fear of prosecution of an unlicensed or unregistered weapon,” Battlefords RCMP Staff Sgt. Darcy Woolfitt said. “We will also accept replica firearms, military ordinances, chemical munitions, explosives and ammunition.”

Last year the City of Regina held a similar amnesty program, which took in 157 guns in a two-week period. Based on that success, the decision was made to launch the initiative province-wide.

“[In] many instances these firearms are passed down from family member to family member,” Woolfitt said. “Sometimes they are secured properly and other times they are not and they are just lying around a home. That’s when it provides an opportunity for a criminal who does a break-and-enter to gain possession of those firearms.”

Battleford RCMP will pick up firearms, Woolfitt said, if someone wants to dispose of them but cannot transport them to police headquarters.

“If there is an instance where this is required, we will dispatch two officers to the location and confiscate the weapon,” he said. “Again, the amnesty would not be applicable if it’s determined that the weapon that was surrendered was used during a criminal act.”

The City of North Battleford made national headlines last fall when the community was named Canada’s most dangerous city despite seeing an eight per cent decrease in violent crime in 2016. Other Saskatchewan communities participating in the gun amnesty include Moose Jaw, Regina, Prince Albert, Saskatoon, Weyburn, and Estevan.

 

roger.white@jpbg.ca

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