Police destruction of guns is witnessed by public

You can argue that it is the people who pull the trigger that do the killing, but you can’t dispute that the abundant presence of guns sure helps. Today a large number of those deadly weapons were put out of commission.

Jacqueline Godwin, Reporting
The six hundred and eleven guns that were destroyed represent only a small number of the firearms police have confiscated over a period of three years. The armaments include a total of three hundred and thirty-one long barrel weapons, two hundred and sixty-eight hand guns and twelve machine guns.

A.C.P. Crispin Jeffries, O.C. Eastern Division
“These firearms were confiscated from across the country. They were handed in for destruction from across the country and they are unserviceable, in some cases some of them are serviceable.”

“We have weapons that have been accumulated over a period of time at police headquarters, they are handed in, we have an accountability system where if a firearm is a matter of a court case in any part of the country it eventually ends up at the police headquarter armoury in Belmopan where from there a destruction list is made and we will disposed of them.”

Today’s torching took place at Memorial Park. In the past similar public exercises were conducted at the Battlefield Park. This morning’s operation included shot guns, Bolt Action rifles, a rocket launcher, pistols, revolvers, pellet guns, homemade and toy guns along with a Tech nine, and Uzi.

A.C.P. Crispin Jeffries
“There is the belief that some of these weapons were handed in voluntarily and yes, a couple of people in the recent months were a part of an exchange where firearms were handed in when some persons were suspected of committing crimes and they decided that they wanted to appease the situation. In many cases those persons may not have been able, we may not have been able to successfully prosecute those persons so the chance of us getting a firearm off the street was there and we took it.”

The activity was witnessed by police commissioner Gerald Westby and chief magistrate Margaret Gabb. According to Westby all destructions will be conducted publicly.

Gerald Westby, Police Commissioner
“And we want to make this a regular feature, we have assured the magistrate and ombudsman office that we will be doing this regularly because we want to demonstrate transparency.”

After the guns were destroyed, the remains were then transported out to sea and dumped at an undisclosed location approved by the Department of Environment.