The police received 8,066 firearms, 6.9 tons of high-explosives, and 30 grenades during the ‘weapons amnesty’ that was introduced this spring.
Additionally, 2,675 shotguns were registered with the police, show the final figures completed by the Police Directorate after the amnesty ended on the 31st of May.
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The amnesty is the third since 2003. During the first amnesty, which lasted for one year between 2003 and 2004, the police received 35,724 firearms.
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During the 2008 amnesty, there were 13,660 weapons handed in. So it’s quite natural that there were fewer weapons given in this time, said Director-General of the Police Directorate, Kristin Kvigne.
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‘Every weapon that came in under the amnesty is an important contribution to preventing criminal acts and accidents,’ said Kvigne.
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She encouraged people who still possess unregistered weapons, who didn’t use the amnesty to offload them, to hand in the weapons anyway.
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‘Contact the police! As a rule, you can’t expect to keep the weapon, but it is also not automatic that you will be punished. If the weapons are discovered in another context, the sentence is 2 years imprisonment, in larger cases, 6 years’, she said.
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© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today
