Oregon Public Broadcasting

Portland's mayor gave an update Thursday on his effort to get illegal guns off the streets.

As Kristian Foden-Vencil reports, 62 handguns, rifles and shotguns have been recovered by a Gun Task Force since it was formed six month ago.

Mayor Sam Adams created the task force after a spate of shootings. The aim is to get guns out of the hands of gang members and felons.

Gang Enforcement Team Lieutenant, Dave Hendrie, believes the effort has stopped all kinds of illegal activity.

Dave Hendrie: "We anticipated that a lot of our guns would be coming from gang members themselves, but what we learned after doing investigations, is that a lot of guns that we were recovering were also being used in domestic violence situations, were stolen in burglaries. And those hands would have ended up on the street, likely in some kind of street violence in the city."

Over the last three months, Portland has passed a series of ordinances to get guns off the street. None has been used yet.

Mayor Adams says he fully expects them to be challenged in court. But he says, the city will defend them vigorously.

Ceasefire Oregon has also organized a gun turn-in event at Memorial Coliseum on Saturday. It will accept any gun -- no questions asked.