Police in Kompong Chhnang province on Tuesday confiscated 35 homemade air rifles used to hunt wildlife in Samakki Meanchey district, but did not prosecute their owners as they handed in the weapons voluntarily, provincial police chief Prak Vuthy said Thursday.
“Local police are continuing to encourage villagers to hand over their homemade weapons to us as part of the ‘safe home policy,’” said Mr. Vuthy, explaining that the crude, air-powered rifles, which fire ball bearings, could be used by and against family members during heated domestic disputes.
Keo Chhun, chief of the provincial police’s explosive ordnance bureau, said the rifles collected Tuesday bring the total number of the weapons seized in the province to 85since the year began.
Mr. Chhun said the rifles are used most often in Kompong Chhnang’s Toek Phos, Boribor and Samakki Meanchey districts, to hunt wildlife native to flooded forest near the mouth of the Tonle Sap river.
