The Saskatchewan Association of Chiefs of Police (SACP), including the Weyburn Police Service, is aiming to improve public safety by running a province-wide gun amnesty program in partnership with the Ministry of Environmentfrom March 29 to April 27. In this program, people can turn over their unwanted firearms without penalty, regardless of how they were acquired.
Each month illegal firearms enter the supply chain through various methods.
During this amnesty period any issues surrounding registration, licensing, possession, etc., will be waived and people can turn in their firearms without fear of prosecution.
Gun violence has been forefront in the news lately North America-wide. This is an opportunity to remove some unwanted firearms from those who no longer wish to be burdened by the ownership requirements.
“In the interests of public safety we ask that you contact the Weyburn Police Service, who will make arrangements to pick up the firearm rather than transporting a firearm and walking into the police station with it,” said deputy chief Rod Stafford.
Those who turn in firearms will be required to sign over legal ownership of the weapon. All weapons turned over will be subsequently destroyed.
In media reports from a provincial briefing on the amnesty by the SACP, Moose Jaw Police Service Chief Rick Bourassa said that police have dealt with more than 1,000 incidents of unlawful firearm use in the province between 2012 and 2016.
“That number has grown through those years,” Bourassa said, adding he expects the numbers to be even higher for the year 2017.
The amnesty program isn't targeted at people who store their guns responsibly, rather it's for people who have come upon war relics, discovered old guns on their property or inherited weapons, and have no use for them. There is no incentive for the initiative and the weapons will be destroyed at the end of the program. Bourassa noted the province-wide amnesty wasn't in response to one particular incident.
Regina police had a two-week municipal gun amnesty program in 2017. During that time, police collected 157 firearms.
Legally used firearms are a "legitimate part of Saskatchewan life, particularly in our rural areas for hunting, sport shooting, predator control and for some, their livelihood," said SACP Assistant Commissioner and RCMP officer Curtis Zablocki.
