There are more than 16,000 legal guns in the region – that's one firearm for every nine people. A freedom of information request by the News revealed the figures, although police refused to lift the lid on how many illegal weapons had been confiscated in the past decade. The statistics on non-registered firearms were not revealed as police believed it "too time consuming" to collate the figures. Freedom of information officer Steven Irving said: "As at 7 January... (GunPolicy.org)