3,000 firearms taken off North East's streets

Dec 28 2009 by Tom Mullen, The Journal

MACHINE guns, rifles and shotguns are among nearly 3,000 firearms taken off the streets of the North East in the past two years, The Journal can reveal today.

The weapons are now set to be destroyed. Northumbria Police and Durham Constabulary released details of all firearms confiscated since September 2007 under the Freedom of Information Act.

They include examples of the British Army’s standard SA-80 assault rifle and two Stirling machine guns.

Durham police collected 498 firearms in total, while Northumbria counted 2,454, including replicas.

The majority are air rifles, with 733, but Northumbria Police also lists 571 shotguns, 22 sawn-off shotguns, 99 pistols and 203 rifles.

Durham Constabulary said it would be too costly to itemise their weapons by category, but listed 18,489 rounds of ammunition, including shotgun cartridges. Neither force would provide information about confiscated explosives. However, Northumbria Police said it seized three batches of flares and smoke grenades.

Last night, police said while some of the guns will have been used among criminal circles, the majority are confiscated from licensed firearms users.

Chief Inspector Bruce Storey, of Northumbria Police’s operations department, said: "These figures refer to the number of weapons that came into police possession over a two-year period and include weapons that have been handed in to police and weapons taken into police possession from licensed certificate holders, normally where their licence has expired and we retain the weapon for them until the licence has been renewed. Of the conventional firearms coming into our possession the vast majority are either voluntarily surrendered or taken for safekeeping whilst licensing issues are resolved."

Sgt Jon Curtis, of Durham Constabulary’s operations department, said: "While we cannot afford to be complacent, firearms-related crime has traditionally been, and remains, very low in Durham compared to many areas of the United Kingdom.

"The firearms and ammunition recovered by the police come into our possession for a variety of reasons, and it should not be assumed they are all connected with crime."

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DEADLY @Thousands of guns have been taken off the streets.

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While we cannot afford to be complacent,