news, local-news, guns

Collie Police will be conducting gun safe checks on the more than 200 registered gun owners in the Collie area over the coming months as part of WA Police’s Operation Bluesun to tackle the issue of illicit firearms in the community. Senior Sergeant Heath Soutar said Collie Police intended to visit every single registered gun owner in the region to ensure all their firearms were registered and safely secured. He said police had already conducted a number of checks and had seized a number of unlicensed firearms and ammunition. He said they would also seize any firearms that were not stored in accordance with the law. Regional WA Commander Jo McCabe said the operation was about the community working together to maintain safety. “Firearms incidents are unusual in Western Australia but there have been a number of recent events that have heightened our concerns,” she said. An Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission report estimated there were 260,000 firearms on the national illicit market. Commander McCabe said there had been a large number of recent firearm thefts, many of which involved firearms that had not been correctly stored. “This makes many of these thefts preventable,” she said. “We are working with firearms groups and owners to ensure compliance and reduce the incidence of opportunistic firearm thefts in our community. “The overwhelming majority of firearm license holders are responsible and Bluesun is about reducing opportunities for criminals to steal these weapons.” To contact Collie Police, call 9734 6333.

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