History:

Similar programs in 1997, 1998 and 2006 successfully removed thousands of guns from B.C. streets. During the four-week, provincewide gun amnesty in 2006, British Columbians turned over 3,213 guns including 505 handguns, and 725 other unwanted weapons to police departments, as well as 96,500 rounds of ammunition, a rocket launcher and a machine gun.

 

Dateline – Penticton

As a way to cut down on the gun violence in BC the province is offering the public the chance to turn in an illegal or unwanted guns or ammunition during the month of October.

The hope is this will prevent the guns from being stolen during break-ins and used for criminal purposes.

Public Safety Minister Mike Morris was asked why the government doesn’t offer this program year-round and he says they are only able to look the other way when it comes to illegal guns for this limited time. “There are complications around that and the criminal element would certainly take advantage of something like that as well. We have to make sure we’re not going to compromise any ongoing criminal investigations and prosecutions that are already in the works.”

President of the BC Association of Chiefs of Police Les Sylven says many guns used in crimes are originally stolen. “Illegal firearms and other weapons are often obtained from commercial and residential break-ins or are unregistered weapons that have been passed down from one generation to the next and eventually end up in the wrong hands.”

Police are making it clear they won’t be recommending charges to anyone with illegal firearm possession, but they will check surrendered weapons to see if they’ve been used to commit a crime.

BC has had two amnesty campaigns in the past in 2006 and 2013 in which it yielded over 5,000 firearms.