Police send weapons to R.I. foundry

PORTLAND – Two Portland police officers on Wednesday will bring several hundred weapons to a Rhode Island foundry to be turned into ship anchors.

The 91 guns were confiscated or forfeited to police in the last two years, according to Police Chief Michael Chitwood. About 200 knives, swords and spears were collected over 10 years, he said.

Chitwood said one of the guns was used in a suicide and that another was used in a shooting last year. Some weapons were brought to police by their owners, who didn’t want them near their children, he said.

“The reason we’re destroying them is that they’ll never be able to be used again for any kind of violence,” Chitwood said. He estimated that the department has had between 800 and 900 weapons destroyed in the same way during the last five or six years.