Over a hundred guns, scores of knives, knuckledusters, a crossbow and even a blunderbuss were among the items surrendered to police during a month-long amnesty.
But it was one of the smallest items that proved to be the most dangerous, as a tiny Czechoslovakian handgun was found to be loaded with live rounds when it was handed in.
Members of the public were able to surrender weapons at any police station in the island throughout November with no questions asked.
Constable Mark Dimsdale of the Firearms Unit said: ‘The loaded handgun made us take a step back. It added a few extra issues for us, but nevertheless it was made safe. But we’ve had it handed in, which is the main thing.’
Organised in conjunction with the Attorney General’s chambers, this was the first amnesty since 2005 and is being hailed as a major success by the police, who may run them more frequently in future.
With the exception of banned items like the knuckledusters, Constable Dimsdale said that the majority of the weapons, including 110 guns, may have been legitimately owned at some stage but the relevant licences could have lapsed.
He said: ‘The majority are air weapons and shotguns, but we’ve also had a couple of rifles and about 25 handguns handed in. The handguns are mostly BB [ball bearing] guns and replicas, but there were some proper firing guns in there too.’
All the weapons will now be safely disposed of.
PC Dimsdale added: ‘We hope it inspires confidence in the public. We’ve kept them off the street, so there’s no danger of them being circulated.’
But he admitted that it’s difficult to assess how many more firearms might be out there. He said: ‘It’s a huge unknown. We have a very big shooting community out there with lots of legitimately owned weapons.
‘I think what we’ve learned from this is that we need to do these amnesties a little more often. If people do recover weapons from attics, or gain them through inheritance or bereavement, it’s good to give people a chance to get them to us with no questions asked.’