Anyone with unlawfully held or unwanted firearms and/or ammunition can hand them over to the police without fear of prosecution until November 17 as part of a weapons amnesty.

Devon and Cornwall Police’s amnesty began on Monday, but people in Falmouth, Penryn and surrounding villages will have to travel to Truro or Camborne to hand any weapons over following the closure of Falmouth’s front desk.

Police are asking people to surrender unlawfully held or unwanted guns and ammunition to help avoid them getting into the wrong hands and potentially becoming involved in criminality. Officers would like to take out of circulation any firearms, which includes guns which can still be fired, antique weapons, replica weapons, air weapons, BB guns, stun guns and ammunition. They believe many firearms could be held in ignorance of their illegality or may be overlooked or forgotten in people's homes. These include trophies of war which have been inherited from a relative, or guns thought to be harmless antiques.

The law on who can possess antique guns has recently changed, and for this reason some people who possess them may not now do so legally.