Phak Seangly

Police in Preah Vihear yesterday burned nearly 1,600 homemade rifles confiscated from villagers around the province.

Preah Vihear provincial authorities said that officers collected the 1,574 DIY illegal weapons from “everywhere” across the province.

“Some villagers did not hand it over and we needed to seize them,” said provincial police chief Si Kiry. “The collecting and burning is for the purpose of abiding by the law, controlling weapons and also strengthening the village-community safety policy.”

read more: http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/guns-gathered-burned-preah-vihear

AK rounds uncovered in B’bang, Prey Veng

Mon, 26 October 2015

Mom Kunthear

Nearly 1,800 AK-47 rounds – thought to be left over from the late 1970s – were found over the weekend in Battambang and Prey Veng provinces, local authorities said yesterday.

Long Sambath, chief of police Battambang’s Svay Chek commune, said yesterday that the owner of an excavator had brought two boxes of ammunition, both containing about 750 rounds, to police after unearthing them on Friday.

“The excavator was digging up some ground . . . and when it dumped the soil into the truck they were loading, they saw the two boxes drop down along with the soil,” he said. “They wondered what the boxes were, and then they opened them to find they were full of AK bullets”.

read more: http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ak-rounds-uncovered-bbang-prey-veng

I'm pretty sure that homemade rifles owned by poor villagers are less of a menace to public safety than the factory-produced automatic weapons which are not uncommon in the region.

I wonder how long it will take the villagers to make some new ones...