Gun owners in Corsica are being asked to hand over weapons to police stations as part of an amnesty programme aimed at reducing the number and use of firearms in the Mediterranean island with a homicide rate that is higher than the national average.
Police are organising a “simplified” weapons disposal operation starting Monday.
Through 4 May, "any holder of undeclared weapons or ammunition will be able to dispose of them in complete safety and without any administrative or legal consequences" the police said, announcing the operation.
Any weapons, including those held legally, can be turned into police stations in any of Corsica's main cities.
When it announced the operation earlier in April, the Corsican prefecture said the number of firearms on the island was “worrying”, with a gun ownership rate of 350 per 1,000 inhabitants in 2022.
While this is much less than the 1,200 firearms per 1,000 inhabitants in the United States, which ranks first in the world, Corsica has "more than double the national average” of 150 weapons per 1,000 inhabitants.
Corsica’s high gun ownership is partially explained by the large number of hunters. According to the Southern Corsican’ departmental federation of hunters, the island has more than 17,000 licensed hunters, or one in five people.
Revenge killings
The island, which has long pushed for autonomy from France, also ranks at the top of homicides per capita, Corsican Prefect Jérôme Filippini said in January, pointing to 18 homicides and 16 attempted homicides in 2024.
Since the beginning of this year there have been seven homicides, including six revenge killings.
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Filippini said the “violence is not inevitable”, and that the island “has the resources” to address it, but it has to be done collectively.
”I am under no illusion that criminals in possession of weapons will come to the gendarmerie to hand them in, but the fewer weapons there are in Corsica, the better off we will be," he said at the end of February when presenting his annual report on crime on the island.
(with AFP)
