Hamilton Police collect 152 firearms in 6-week amnesty effort

Hamilton Police collected 152 firearms, 10,000 rounds of ammunition, two matching spears from two different houses and some containers of explosive black powder under a six-week amnesty launched in September.

Acting Insp. Paul Evans said no "crime guns" were among the weapons collected, but the haul represents the removal of "potential crime guns." 

An amnesty done last year brought in more than twice that many guns, and Evans attributed the smaller number to how recently that previous campaign was done. 

"A lot of what we see is people who lawfully possess the firearms, they just no longer wish to," Evans said. "A year ago, we had a lot of those community members come forward. Fast forward one more year, not that many people have changed their mind about ownership."

In 2014, Evans said he found many guns were being stored improperly, "a lot" of them even loaded, but this time only one gun was found with ammunition inside.  

Any gun from before 1897 is considered antique. Two of the guns collected in this campaign are being evaluated for whether they fit that description, in which case they'd be preserved in the Centre for Forensic Sciences collection. The rest are sent to a facility to be destroyed.

Toronto and Waterloo police have launched amnesty programs, too, which could lead to more guns coming in to Hamilton Police, Evans expects.

Police say anyone who didn't participate already who wants to get rid of a gun can call for a pickup at 905.546.4925.