Antique musket handed in during Northamptonshire guns amnesty

The National Ballistics Intelligence Service (NABIS) firearms surrender campaign is designed to "remove firearms from falling into the pool of criminally used weapons"

An antique muzzle loading musket was one of 25 weapons handed in to police in Northamptonshire following a two-week firearms amnesty.

Seven shotguns, air weapons including BB guns and starter pistols, and one deactivated German P38 pistol were also surrendered between 12 and 29 May.

The scheme was run as part of a UK-wide campaign by the National Ballistics Intelligence Service (NABIS).

The Northants force said "25 dangerous weapons are now off the streets".

The NABIS campaign, which allowed people across the county to hand in unwanted or illegal firearms and ammunition to the police, was designed to "remove firearms from falling into the pool of criminally used weapons".

Police said many firearms owned legally are sometimes no longer wanted by their owners while others are "held in innocence and ignorance of their illegality".

Insp Colin Newport, from Northamptonshire Police, said the 25 weapons were "off the streets of Northamptonshire and therefore cannot be used to cause harm to anyone".

"I'm pleased that so many people took the opportunity to take part in this initiative and the number of firearms recovered certainly proves how valuable such a surrender is," he said.

"We want the public to be safe, and this surrender means that the risk of these firearms potentially falling into the wrong hands has been eliminated."

He added that the weapons would be made safe before being destroyed.

"If we think there is an item of historical value, then we work with national museums to identify if something needs to be kept for the public good and displayed safely in a museum," he said.