Rare World War I German Luger pistol surrendered in South Australian firearm amnesty

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A rare, fully operational World War I Luger pistol is among the thousands of firearms so far surrendered in South Australia.

The pistol, in pristine condition, was left on the counter at the Adelaide Gun Shop as part of the firearms amnesty surrender.

"It had all of the accessories including the holster with it and I think has some significance to collectors," store owner Robert Paridis said.

As part of South Australia's ongoing firearm amnesty, people can drop off weapons to either police stations or participating gun shops.

Mr Paridis said the pistol was a stand out in the large number of mainly long arms, particularly single-shot .22 rifles and air rifles.

"They tend to be the type of firearms left in a shed somewhere or not seen for many years," he said.

South Australia's ongoing amnesty

In the first month of the national three-month amnesty, South Australians surrendered 687 firearms.

But the state has had its own ongoing amnesty since December 1, 2015.

More than 5,300 firearms have been handed in.

"We are attempting to legitimise firearms which are out there in the community [and] get them either registered or off the streets," said Inspector Paul Sinor from the South Australian Police firearms branch.

"The national amnesty has probably been formulated a lot on what South Australia has done with the use of dealers."

Inspector Sinor said not all firearms surrendered had to be automatically destroyed.

Licensed owners were welcome to trade or sell unregistered firearms to dealers.

One in 10 firearms surrendered at dealers

Inspector Sinor said approximately 10 per cent of all firearms were being handed in to dealers.

"Nearly all of those were handed in for re-registration," he said.

"About 80 per cent are shotguns and rifles, about 3 per cent handguns, and then we have a category of other, which refers to homemade, converted or those that we can't classify."

Inspector Sinor said the goal of the amnesty was not to remove firearms from responsible owners but to simply to keep track of the firearms in the community.

"If people know of or have firearms which they have had handed down or have found, under any circumstance, they can be handed in [without repercussions]."

Topics: law-crime-and-justice, human-interest, adelaide-5000