SIGN UP FOR OUR By Wendy Anders
A gun seized by Costa Rican police this year.
Police seize an average of five firearms each day in Costa Rica, most of these in San José, the country’s capital, stated the Public Security Ministry in a press statement yesterday.
From January to September this year police removed 1,340 illegal weapons from the country’s streets, reported the Ministry’s Statistics and Analysis Section (SAE, in Spanish).
The report details that 621 of the weapons seized so far this year were pistols, 471 were revolvers, 94 were makeshift or hand-made arms, 47 were shotguns, 37 were rifles, 36 were carbines, and the rest were small quantities of other assorted weapons.
Almost a third of the illegal firearms were seized in San Jose (412), and 132 were captured in the province of Limón. The remainder were captured in different police raids and operations throughout the country.
In 2015, Costa Rican police seized a total of 1,712 illegal firearms, reported the Public Security Ministry.
