KINGSTON, Jamaica— Over 90 guns and more than 2,500 rounds of ammunition were handed in to the police during the two-week gun amnesty that ended at midnight Saturday.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness made the disclosure on Sunday as he addressed the 79th annual conference of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) inside the National Arena.

The prime minister said he was surprised by the level of response but acknowledged that “there are still thousands of illegal guns all across Jamaica”.

“We went out of our way to give the amnesty and to give warnings, they did not heed it. You know the Jamaican saying, if you can’t hear you will feel,” he stated.

On Friday, Holness urged persons possessing illegal firearms to turn them in before the amnesty expired. He warned that the full force of the new Firearms Act that took effect in October will be brought to bear on those who possess, use and traffic in firearms. Those found in breach of the new law face between 15 years and life behind bars.

He also took a swipe at taxi operators who withdrew their services last Monday to press their demand for a traffic ticket amnesty.

“We will not bow to any group that seeks to pressure us for causes that are unlawful, disorderly or not in the public’s interest,” Holness declared.

He also said the JLP will not accept as normal, the over 1,000 murders that take place each year “in a free and democratic society” as he urged support from the parliamentary Opposition for the states of emergency (SOEs) that he declared last Tuesday for seven parishes.

Said Holness: “We have never accepted as normal, the murder rate of over a thousand persons each year in a free and democratic society. We believe that such high murder rates are a threat to the freedom and democracy of the society and that the existence of such high rates of murder demonstrably justifies the use of emergency powers to protect the right to life of the law-abiding citizens from the lawless and marauding few in our society”.

“We see the current levels of murder as an emergency and we invited the Opposition to share this perspective in having the recently-declared states of public emergency extended,” he added.

Under the law, the Government may declare a SOE for an initial two weeks but must receive parliamentary approval for it to be extended for up to three months each time.

The Opposition has suggested that it will not be lending its support for an extension citing cases before the court, court challenges, an over reliance by the Holness administration on the security measure among other reasons.