Unlicensed firearms can be handed in without prosecution from today, with the State Government opening its amnesty for the next three months. WEST Australians have been urged to hand over unlicensed firearms as part of a state-wide gun amnesty. Between now and October 31, gun owners will be able to hand in firearms to police without facing charges or fines. It will be the first gun amnesty in WA since 2006, when 150 guns were collected. Police Minister Liza Harvey and Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan launched the amnesty today and asked people in possession of guns from deceased estates, in particular, to hand them in to police. "There are about 1000 firearms that are subject to deceased estates - we encourage all of those people to hand those guns into police," Ms Harvey said. The usual penalty is $12,000 or 3 years in prison for the possession of unlicensed firearms. Between now and October 31 there will be an amnesty from any prosecution. Currently, 85,000 people have firearm licenses in WA and own a total of about 270,000. Ms Harvey said the firearms could be handed in without prosecution, provided they had not been used to carry out a crime. "What we would like to see is a good uptake of this from members of the community so we can take weapons out of the suburbs and off the streets and make them less accessible to people in the community who might like to misuse them," she said. The move follows a report from WA's Auditor-General, which raised serious concerns about the management of firearms in WA by police. Auditor-General Colin Murphy said that following an investigation, "numerous weaknesses were identified with the WA Police Firearms Register and supporting systems." The report identified 988 firearms that have not been recovered by WA Police from deceased estates dating back to 1983. It also found 300 people were listed as owning a firearm despite being classified as unfit to do so because of a criminal conviction or being the subject of a violence restraining order Ms Harvey said WA Police were working to develop a new firearm licensing computer system, but gun owners would wear the cost in fee hikes introduced today. "The people who are using the system are the people who will be paying for the system," Ms Harvey said. She said the Law Reform Commission would also carry out a review of the Firearms Act this year. It's expected the Commission will provide recommendations on a firearms cap to limit the number of guns one person can own.