A month-long amnesty that permitted people to turn in illegally held weapons to police on a no-questions-asked basis yielded 7000 unlicensed fire arms of various types during August, police spokesman Mordechai Tavor announced today. Tavor conceded however that there were still tens of thousands of illegally held weapons unaccounted for though he termed the amnesty a marked success.
He said police were still accepting unlicensed weapons without questioning the owner provided that the latter offered a reasonable excuse for not having turned in the fire arms during August. A reasonable excuse, he said, was illness or absence abroad.
Tougher penalties for the illegal possession of weapons are now in force. Tavor said that more than half the weapons turned in so far were pistols. There were 952 sub-machinegun, 1770 rifles and 660 hunting rifles. Tavor said that half the persons who turned weapons in had applied for permits which were now under consideration.
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