Weapon surrenders to make Cumbria 'a safer place'

Police are holding weapon surrenders across Cumbria in an effort to make it a safer place.

Despite the county seeing a lower number of weapon offences than other areas of the country, the force is giving the public two opportunities to hand over their weapons in May.

Between 12 and 29 May, people will be able to surrender unlawfully held or unwanted firearms, ammunition or other weapons.

This also includes items that have the potential to be converted, such as antique guns, blank firing replicas and imitations.

Illegal possession of a firearm can mean five years in prison, and if you are found guilty of possession with intent to supply that can lead to a life sentence. 

A knife surrender is also being held from 16 to 22 May.

Carrying a knife could end in a £5,000 fine and four years in jail - even if it has not been used.

Chief Inspector Gill Cherry said: "Every weapon that is handed into police is one less in circulation that could fall into the wrong hands.

"The potential disastrous consequences of these weapons underline the need for those who do not want them to hand them in.

"Our previous operations have been successful in removing weapons from our county, we ran Operation Sceptre in November 2021 which resulted in 153 bladed articles being handed in.

"We last ran firearms surrender in 2019 in which 112 items were handed in."

The stations where weapons can be handed in are:

• North Cumbria - Carlisle and HQ Penrith

• South Cumbria - Barrow and Kendal

• West Cumbria - Whitehaven and Workington