Police urges public to hand in illegal guns

The Botswana Police Service (BPS) has urged people possessing illegal or obsolete firearms and ammunition to surrender them at the nearest police station before September ends, under the SADC Africa Amnesty Month initiative. The amnesty runs throughout September and allows members of the public to voluntarily surrender illegal firearms without fear of prosecution for unlawful possession.

Senior Superintendent Gosekwang Sevilla of the Central Arms Registry said the initiative aims at getting illegal firearms out of communities and preventing them from being used in criminal activities. Tuesday this week marked the eighth day of the amnesty, with the police continuing to receive firearms and ammunition from members of the public for the entire month. “The African Union has set this day for the public to bring in illegal firearms to prevent the country from having such guns,” he said.

He assured members of the public that surrendering a firearm during the amnesty would not result in criminal charges for unlawful possession. Sevilla said even in cases where a surrendered firearm is suspected to have been used in a crime, the person handing it over would not be charged merely for surrendering the weapon during the amnesty. Instead, such firearms would be set aside and handed over to courts handling the relevant cases as part of investigations.

Sevilla further said arrangements would be made for firearms stolen from neighbouring countries to be returned to their countries of origin. He urged Batswana to use the amnesty period to surrender firearms and ammunition that they are not legally authorised to possess. The appeal comes against the background of the BPS’ ongoing efforts to remove unwanted firearms from circulation. In July, the police destroyed 299 surrendered firearms comprising 214 shotguns, 75 rifles and 10 pistols, during an exercise at the Botswana Police College in Otse.

The destruction was part of an annual exercise conducted in line with SADC protocols governing the control of firearms, ammunition and other related materials.