Police paid a total of $1,022,599 in compensation to Canterbury firearms owners in the first gun buy-back event held over the weekend in Christchurch
Police say in addition to 542 firearms handed in, there was a total of 578 parts and accessories collected at the event held at Riccarton Racecourse.
The Government has set aside more than $200 million to buy back many types of semi-automatic weapons such as AR-15 style rifles, banned by the Government after the Christchurch mosques terrorist attack in March.
Under an amnesty, gun owners have until December to turn over their now-banned weapons.
Yesterday's local collection event surpassed Saturday's attendance with 200 firearms owners processed.
Provisional figures for Sunday saw a total of 293 prohibited firearms and 321 parts and accessories handed in.
The amount compensated to firearms owners yesterday was $537,197.
“These first two days of local collection events and implementing the buy-back scheme has been a first for both the Police and firearms owners," Acting Canterbury District Commander Mike Johnson said.
"This weekend has been a great success but we are fully aware that this is just the start of what will be a six-month process,” he said.
"Once again, I can’t thank the Canterbury firearms owners enough for their support and engagement in this process.”
It was the first of more than 250 planned firearms buy-back events to be held around New Zealand.
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