Kent Police are urging owners of a specific type of illegal firearm to hand them in to Kent Police during a month-long amnesty.
Top-venting blank-firing (TVBF) weapons are legal to purchase in the UK but there are four Turkish brands – Blow, Ceonic, Ekol and Retay – that can be converted into viable firearms and are therefore unlawful.
A national amnesty is taking place between Monday 3 and Friday 28 February 2025 during which time anyone who surrenders such a firearm will not be prosecuted for possessing it. Anyone caught with one of the banned TVBFs following the conclusion of the amnesty could be arrested and face a maximum of 10 years in prison.
The firearms can be handed in at the following police stations in Kent:
- Canterbury – Old Dover Road.
- Folkestone – Bouverie Road West.
- Maidstone – Palace Avenue.
- Margate – Fort Hill.
- Medway – Purser Way, Gillingham.
- North Kent – Thames Way, Northfleet.
- Tonbridge – Pembury Road.
Anyone planning to surrender a TVBF should travel straight to the police station taking care to conceal the firearm at all times in public, including at the station until you are asked to remove it.
Detective Chief Inspector Martin Davies of Kent Police said:
‘We anticipate that most people who own these brands of TVBFs are not aware they are illegal or planning to use them to commit criminal acts. The purpose of this amnesty is to remove as many of the weapons as possible from the streets so they do not end up in the wrong hands.
‘Kent is a very safe place to live, work and visit where gun crime is fortunately rare. We want to keep it that way and that is why we are very keen for weapons such as these to be surrendered.
‘Since 2021 more than 800 TVBFs linked to criminal activity have been recovered by police forces across the UK and they have also been used in at least four homicides nationally over the past two years. Once converted they are clearly very dangerous weapons and we must all do everything we can to ensure they stay out of the reach of those who would use them to cause harm.’