The Weyburn Police Service, along with other Saskatchewan municipal police services, the RCMP, and the Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment, have officially launched the 2022 Firearm Amnesty program.

The proactive approach to the issue of gun violence in Saskatchewan runs from March 21st to April 10th, 2022.

"It's basically a three week period where anyone that has firearms or ammunition, or even replica firearms, parts of firearms, anything like that, that they want to get rid of, that may or may not be in compliance, this is a chance for them to give us a call, tell us what they have," explained Deputy Chief Brent VanDeSype with the Weyburn Police Service. "We'll arrange, come pick it up, and there won't be any charges resulting from during that time period."

He said there could be a number of ways that they came into possession of illegal firearms.

"It could be through an estate. It could be that they've just had it for a long period of time and never bothered to get it registered, or whatever it is, this is just that chance to dispose of it safely," he noted.

"We strongly urge that anyone that has firearms or ammunition or anything like that that they want to get rid of, do not touch it. Do not handle it. Do not try and unload it, just give us a call. We'll have an officer come and pick it up, make it safe and take it from your possession."

He said to call the WPS at 306-848-3250, and ensure you have available the keys to your storage unit or wherever it's being stored, so that the officer can easily access it.

"We certainly don't want any danger to come out of it with someone trying to unload it," he cautioned.

"When it comes into police possession, basically we just check make sure that it's not involved in any type of criminal activity and then we have permission from the Canadian Firearms Center to destroy it," VanDeSype shared.

"The whole idea is that the guns that are out there that may not be in legal possession, or there's no use for them anymore, or you inherited them and just out don't have use for them, give us a call, we'll get them off the street. We'll prevent them from falling into the wrong hands and actually becoming dangerous." 

He added that law enforcement agencies across the province are keeping track of how many or turned over and disposed of, so stats on how many will be surrendered this time should become available at a later date.