If you are looking to surrender firearms for any reason, please call our non-emergency number at 315-736-0141 and advise them you have firearm(s) to surrender. A deputy sheriff will be sent to your address in order to take possession of the firearm(s). The owner of the firearm(s) will get a receipt from the deputy for the firearm(s) as proof that we have them in our custody and they will be held in our ID Unit at the Sheriff’s Office.
If you no longer want the weapon, please tell that to the deputy when they pick it up from you and they will be destroyed after processing. If the gun owner has passed away, please know that according to NYS Law, long guns/rifles are exempt from transfers between immediate family members. However, also according to the law, all handguns owned by a gun owner that has passed away and the deceased’s permit must be surrendered to a the responding deputy. The permit is then turned into the Oneida County Pistol Permit Office and the firearm(s) will be stored safely with the Sheriff's Office until someone can make arrangements to have the handguns legally placed on an active pistol permit. The Sheriff’s Office does not release any firearms directly back to family/owners – they can only be released to a NYS firearms dealer/FFL holder of the person’s choice. Then the firearm(s) can be retrieved from the dealer at the completion of the process. Any ammunition surrendered with firearms cannot be returned and is destroyed.
New York State only requires law enforcement agencies to hold surrendered firearms for up to 1 year. Anything that remains here longer than a year would be considered a nuisance firearm and can be destroyed. We typically do hang onto surrendered firearms for longer than a year, however, storage space usually dictates when we do a gun destroy. It is recommended that arrangements be made within a year of being surrendered, but if there are any special circumstances with the surrender, please clearly explain this to the deputy that is receiving the firearm from you. Notifications by the Sheriff’s Office are not made when firearms are destroyed.
