Merseyside Police has hailed the success of two weeks of action carried out to ensure legally-held firearms and ammunition are being correctly and safely stored.

There are currently 16 registered firearms dealers on Merseyside, including sports and gun shops, shooting clubs and armouries.

In the first week of action firearms enquiry officers, with the assistance of uniformed colleagues, visited each of the dealers to ensure legislation around storage, ownership and record-keeping was being complied with.

All stock was checked against the dealers register and specialist architectural liaison officers checked that properties were secure.

As a result one registered firearm dealer was removed from the register and their personal firearms certificate revoked after an insecure weapon and parts were found in their property.

A second dealer was also removed from the register and their firearms/shotgun/explosive certificates revoked after a quantity of ammunition was found to be not stored securely.

In a second week of action 23 firearms and shotgun certificate owners, who own multiple weapons, were visited and security checks carried out by officers. A warning letter was issued to one person whose explosive licence had expired and a full survey carried out at a property where the security did not meet the required standard.

Assistant Chief Constable Ian Critchley said: "We have a responsibility for public safety and ensuring that everyone who legitimately owns a firearm or ammunition is correctly registered and abides by the legislation.

"This is not about preventing people from legally holding firearms but about ensuring firearms are correctly and safely stored and this activity has been very successful in reducing the risk to the communities of Merseyside.

"Nationally there is concern that lawfully-held firearms are finding their way into criminal hands which is why it is important that operations such as these are carried out regularly to identify anyone who is not abiding by the law and in doing so is putting themselves or other people at risk.

"During our second week of action it became apparent that some certificate holders had become blasé in their approach to security of their guns and their home, which leaves them in a vulnerable position and poses a risk to public safety.

"It also became apparent that they were not using all of their guns and two certificate holders have now reduced the amount in their possession – with 10 in total either being sold or destroyed by Merseyside Police.

There is ongoing work by certificate holders to continue to reduce the amount of weapons in their possession due to them not being used."