Over 100 weapons handed to police during two week gun surrender
Merseyside Police joined forces across the country
More than 100 weapons - including handguns, shotguns and ammunition - are now off the streets of Merseyside, after a two week firearms surrender.
Police have been asking people to give up their weapons - in total, 122 have been handed in - with 30 viable firearms amongst them
The Force joined with five other police forces to take part in the firearms surrender, which ran from Monday 13 November to Sunday 26 November 2017.
It was designed to give people in possession of firearms an opportunity to hand them in. It also extended to giving people a safe disposal route for antique, replica and decommissioned firearms which could be capable of being reactivated and used for criminal purposes.
The hand-in included:
14 handguns
16 shotguns/rifles
6 imitation/replica weapons
16 blank firers/starting pistols
34 air weapons
3 antique firearms
19 lots of ammunition comprising more than 2,050 rounds
14 other items including more than 650 blank rounds, 2,600 pellets, an Uzi BB replica gun, 2 flare guns, smoke canisters, a smoke grenade, a training grenade and a bayonet
Detective Chief Superintendent Chris Green said: "We are extremely pleased with the results of this surrender and the firearms that the public have handed-in. I would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their excellent response to the surrender operation.
"Our commitment is to protect the lives and livelihoods of law-abiding members of our community and I want to reassure people that we will continue our fight against those who are involved in criminality and who continue to make other people’s lives a misery through firearms, drug dealing and serious and organised crime.
"The surrender has run alongside the pro-active work that we do every single day, all year round and we will stand together with the community in our pledge to disrupt criminal activity, take guns off our streets and put the people responsible behind bars.