Monday, January 22, 1973
TWO-WEEK ARMS AMNESTY ANNOUNCED
Immunity For Those Handing In Explosives, Offensive Weapons
From midnight January 26 until midnight February 10, 1973,
there will be an amnesty in respect of all arms and ammunition, explosive
substances, fire-crackers and offensive weapons which are reported to
the Police or handed in at any Police station.
The Attorney General announced this amnesty today.
The terms of the immunity conferred by this amnesty are that
a person will not be subject to prosecution in respect of the possession
of any arms or ammunition, explosive substance, fire-cracker or offensive
weapon handed in by him to a Police station or recovered by the Police
as a result of information given by him.
This immunity does not extend to criminal offences in which
such arms, etc. have played a part; for example, a person surrendering a
revolver will not be prosecuted for his unlawful possession but will remain
liable to prosecution for any offence he has committed with it, such as &
robbery.
The Attorney General commented that during 1972 there were numerous
cases of firearms and other weapons being used to commit serious crino. These included 25 reported cases of robbery with firearms (as compared
with 14 in 1971), and 84 reported cases of illegal possession of arms and
ammunition (as compared with 36 in 1971).
The law
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