Deadly haul of guns and knives handed in during weapons amnesty in West Midlands and Essex

A deadly collection of guns and knives have been handed in during a weapons amnesty across the West Midlands and Essex.

The haul of 116 pistols, rifles and shotguns was voluntarily handed over at collection points across the West Midlands in a three-week period.

In Essex, a huge haul of some 1,500 blades was handed in to anti-knives charity Only Cowards Carry from three collection points across the county.

West Midlands Police organised the firearms surrender during a lethal spike in violence and gun crime.

The force extended the period by which weaponry could be handed in by a week, as trouble flared.

Across the region there were two fatal shootings and at least seven gun discharges, leaving four other people injured, between May 12 and the beginning as June.

In the same period, there were 12 knife attacks, including two fatal stabbings of teenagers in separate incidents in Birmingham and Wolverhampton.

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Latest figures by the Office for National Statistics showed there were 13 gun offences per 100,000 residents in the West Midlands, with the national average sitting at 11.

Among weaponry handed in was a Turkish-made, 12-gauge, pump-action shotgun, and two hunting shotguns featuring exquisitely detailed engraving on the trigger mechanisms.

Also handed over were batches of Second World War-era .303 Lee Enfield rifle rounds, shotgun cartridges, and hollow-point .22 ammunition – all of it lethal in the wrong hands.

Among the more unusual items surrendered was a long-barrelled parlour gun, favoured by gentlemen and popular on indoor firing ranges at the turn of the last century, and two rusting wartime flare guns.

Also among the weaponry now being catalogued and examined by police experts were sawn-off shotguns.

In all, 34 lethal or convertible and potentially lethal guns were handed in, along with other imitation and air weapons.

The weaponry will all be first scrutinised to see if it can be linked to any crimes, and then safely destroyed at a secure site.

The force also stressed it was also tackling the criminals willing to use such deadly weaponry with proactive patrols, seizures and house searches based on intelligence.

Officers have been carrying out so-called Section 60 stops and searches in the east of Birmingham recently and have recovered knives, machetes and other weaponry.

Detective Inspector Rod Rose, of West Midlands Police, said: ‘Coming just six months after our last firearms surrender which saw 245 weapons handed in, this is a significant result and shows that there are still firearms out there which could be lethal in the wrong hands.’

One of the women involved in the knife collection in Essex, Caroline Shearer, lost her 17-year-old son Jay Whiston when he was knifed to death at a private party in 2012.

She said: ‘I get quite agitated when people try to defend knives. There is no reason to carry a gun – it’s more dangerous to carry one than not.’