The day saw three firearms and a large quantity of ammunition handed in to Derby’s Tasmania Police station.

In the week leading up to the day there was also a further 13 firearms were surrendered at the Scottsdale police station.

All of the firearms will be either destroyed or registered and sold on legally.

While Tasmania does have a permanent firearm amnesty, the mobile amnesty sites make it easier for people to hand in unregistered or unwanted firearms according to Sergeant Phil Burton. 

Sergeant Phil Burton also said that people were becoming less hesitant about handing in illegal firearms to their local police.

“At the beginning of the amnesty people were definitely a bit nervous, but because it’s been going for six weeks people are more aware that they can hand in a firearm to police and walk away without giving their details,” he said. 

“As the amnesty goes on, we are finding that people are more comfortable in going ‘I’ve got an unregistered firearm, but I want to get rid of it because I don’t want it in my house anymore,’ and they’re quite comfortable with that.” 

Scottsdale’s Senior Constable Andrew Lusted emphasised that there was no blame or judgement levelled towards people who hand in any firearms. 

“[Most people] don’t set out to have an unregistered firearm; it can happen due to circumstances they had limited control over,” he said.

“An example of this is when people have inherited firearms but have stored them away for many years not knowing how to properly dispose of them.”

Senior Constable Lusted said  the amnesty seeks to prevent firearms from falling into dangerous hands.

“We are bringing this service to regional communities so that the risk of that firearm falling into the wrong hands, is reduced,” he said. 

 “[The service is] providing a controlled environment for the correct disposal of firearms and ammunition.”

The amnesty, founded after the review into 2014’s Sydney siege, has resulted in over 900 firearms handed in to Tasmanian authorities.