Sask. police collect 283 firearms during gun amnesty

Police services across Saskatchewan plan to hold another province-wide gun amnesty next year even though numbers are declining.

Regina took the lead, launching its first gun amnesty program in 2017 and collecting 157 unwanted firearms. The Saskatchewan Association of Chiefs of Police (SACP) then decided to hold the first province-wide gun amnesty in 2018, collecting 368 firearms. Regina collected fewer guns than it did in its first year, at 101.

In 2019, a total of 283 firearms were turned over to police across Saskatchewan, with 57 of those being accepted by the Regina Police Service.

Regina Police Chief Evan Bray revealed the 2019 results on Wednesday, speaking on behalf of SACP president Marlo Pritchard. While Regina is seeing a decline in guns handed over, Bray still considers the program a success.

He also explained that there isn’t a single approach to tackle the gun problem in Saskatchewan and that police must deal with the issue in a variety of ways.

Firearms collected during a gun amnesty on display at the Regina police headquarters on May 8, 2019. (Andrew Shepherd/980 CJME)

“This is not the perfect solution. This does not solve the firearm issue that we see in our communities,” said Bray. “This is an opportunity for us to take the possibility of firearms that are unwanted, potentially not being stored properly, out of risk of falling into the hands of someone who’s going to use them for an illegal purpose.”

Bray said the decline in numbers shouldn’t be a surprise and was something he expected. He added the gun amnesty program causes a lot of extra work for Regina’s evidence management unit, which catalogues and tags the guns, but stressed the benefit to the community outweighs that.

The SACP has committed to holding the province-wide initiative for just one more year.

“We thought we’ll do (a province-wide amnesty) for the third year and then we’ll just reassess after that. It may be that, although we don’t do it as a provincial initiative, some cities might choose to continue to do it on their own,” said Bray.

Bray said the amnesty is a good way to educate the public about firearm safety and how to properly store guns. It’s also a way to help legal gun owners who want to safely dispose of an old or unwanted firearm without it ending up in the hands of criminals.

Of the 283 firearms collected in 2019, 207 were non-restricted weapons, mostly rifles and shotguns. There were 11 firearms prohibited by design and two prohibited by modification, with the barrels cut.

The firearms will be melted down at Evraz unless they were used in a crime or have historical value. On Wednesday, Bray was not aware that any of the weapons were caught up in a criminal investigation but that process is still underway. Any older, historical or antique weapons will be rendered inoperable and donated to a museum.

The Regina Police Service also accepted two explosive exhibits, smokeless powder and black powder.