Wiltshire and Hampshire Police urging public to hand in guns and firearms
Two week amnesty is underway
Last updated 13th May 2022
Wiltshire and Hampshire Police forces are calling on people to hand in their guns and ammunition as part of a two week firearms surrender.
Op Aztec is a national campaign appealing to the public to give up unlicensed and illegal weapons until May 29th.
During this period those surrendering firearms will not face prosecution for the illegal possession at the point of surrender and can remain anonymous.
In Wiltshire weapons can be handed in at a number of police stations, including Salisbury's.
This is also the same for Hampshire, with Andover station accepting them.
The weapons people can hand in include:
• Guns which can still be fired
• Antique or unwanted collectible weapons
• Trophies of war
• Replica weapons
• Air weapons
• BB guns
• Stun guns
• Ammunition, which is no longer required
Sergeant Bill Monk from Wiltshire Specialist Operations said:
“The fight against gun crime is stronger than ever and we use a variety of tactics to locate weapons that have fallen into the wrong hands – but we need the public’s help. We want as many firearms as possible and would encourage people to hand them in at either Chippenham, Melksham, Trowbridge, Salisbury or Swindon Police Stations during the opening hours shown on the Force website.
"Nationally firearms crime remains low however there are still very serious incidents involving guns taking place and we are working with partners and our local communities to safeguard, educate and intervene at the earliest opportunity.
"This two-week surrender is a campaign to prevent firearms from falling into the pool of criminally used weapons.”
Changes to legislation mean it is no longer legal, in some cases, to own specific firearms without a license, if at all.
It is the responsibility of the owner to ensure that they meet the relevant ownership requirements.
In 2019 when the last national gun surrender took place 190 weapons were handed in to Wiltshire Police including a deactivated AK-47 and two First World War bolt-action rifles.