Bermuda has announced a one month amnesty that goes into effect as of Tuesday with law enforcement officials urging the public to help reduce the number of ‘dangerous items’ in circulation.
‘The amnesty is about being in possession of a weapon; it’s not about what it’s being used for or anything else. We will, of course, forensically examine any gun or any weapon which we think may have been involved in a crime,’ Assistant Commissioner of Police Martin Weekes, old the Royal Gazette newspaper. He said under the amnesty, which ends on December 17, prohibited items can be deposited in any of the safely secured bins that will placed outside the police stations at three locations, namely St David’s, Somerset and Hamilton.
The authorities said that instruments designed to inflict harm that have been removed from the public in other countries but not yet seized by law enforcers in Bermuda are included in the items covered by the weapons amnesty.
Weekes told the newspaper that the amnesty drive is being launched as a proactive approach to reduce the number of ‘dangerous items’ in circulation and that under the Criminal Code (Prohibited Weapons) Order 1980, there are 11 items listed as ‘prohibited’ and a further eight are due to be added.
‘It includes a mix of what is being found here, what we’ve taken off of people here and also where they were taken off people in other jurisdictions. ‘It’s the kind of things that we are seeing in those jurisdictions but we want to get ahead of the game and stop the import as well.’
Weekes told the newspaper that he was optimistic that the public will co-operate and hand in the weapons. While the prohibited weapons list features mainly knives and items used in martial arts, Weekes said firearms and ammunition can be surrendered, urging the public not to place those in the bins.
‘If someone wants to surrender a firearm, they can still do that. They can call the police on 211 and tell us they are bringing it in, so that we know they are on the way or we can go to them and collect it. But they can’t be putting them into one of these plastic bins; that obviously would be dangerous.’
Weekes told the Royal Gazette that the police do not expect ‘the average gang member’ to visit a police station and hand over a gun.
‘It’s more likely that somebody else outside of the gang fraternity who comes across a weapon would do that.’