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Across February, the Constabulary will be joining forces from across England, Wales and the National Crime Agency in a national campaign supporting the amnesty of illegal firearms.
The four-week amnesty campaign to remove Turkish Top-Venting Blank-Firing (TVBF) firearms from our streets will be taking place from Monday 3 February until Friday 28 February to prevent these illegal firearms from being used in criminal circles.
Whilst in Cheshire gun-related crime remains low, there are growing concerns on the national stage regarding these firearms.
In their original state, TVBFs have a fully blocked barrel and are designed to discharge only blank cartridges. However, recent testing conducted by the National Crime Agency has found that many criminals have been painting the typically bright-coloured weapons black, imitating lethal firearms. As well as this, it has been discovered that these weapons can be easily converted using household tools to dispense lethal cartridges.
Firearms legislation has not changed; the weapons are illegal to own under the Firearms Act 1968 as they can be readily converted using common household tools and without specialist skill on the part of the person carrying out the conversion. Recent testing completed by the NCA has demonstrated this. The specific Turkish firearms soon to be made illegal are models with the brand names Retay, Ekol, Ceonic and Blow.
Since 2021, UK law enforcement has recovered more than 800 converted blank firers, with further research finding at least four were used homicides in the UK in the last two years.
Cheshire Police are asking people to hand in any TVBFs before 28 February 2025 to help them avoid prosecution and prevent these pistols from getting into the wrong hands.
Many TVBFs may be held in innocence and ignorance of their illegality or may be overlooked or forgotten in their homes. The amnesty gives people the chance to dispose of the TVBFs safely by taking them to a local helpdesk and handing them in.
Firearms can be handed at the five main Cheshire Police helpdesks across the county, which are all open between 8am and 5pm:
Superintendent Gareth Wrigley, who is leading amnesty operations in Cheshire, said:
"Gun crime in the Cheshire, thankfully, is very rare but we are not complacent about gun crime, which is why we are conducting the Turkish Top-Venting Firearms Amnesty after tests have shown they can be readily converted into firearms, therefore making them illegal to possess.
“Surrendering top-venting blank firers manufactured by BLOW, CEONIC, EKOL and RETAY now will help prevent them falling into the wrong hands in the future and being used by criminals. More often than not, the top halves of these firearms come in bright colours such as blue, pink or yellow, so they most definitely cannot be missed.
"We want as many top-venting blank firers as possible to be handed in and I encourage anyone in possession of one to visit their local police station to hand them in. I would also like to reiterate, that anyone who does choose to hand in a TVBF during the amnesty period, will not face prosecution. You can also choose to do this anonymously, so there is no excuse for not disposing of these kinds of firearms.
“As always, we will be continually working with our partner organisations in educating the people of our county about firearms and the dangers that come with them, to ensure that gun crime doesn’t become prevalent in the future.”