David and Catherine Knight know from experience that a phone call costs less than a funeral.
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The siblings buried their father, Canberra truck driver Bob Knight, after he was caught in the crossfire of a violent gunfight between two rival gangs in Sydney in 2009.
Now they are urging anyone with information about illegal guns to pick up the phone and make an anonymous report to Crime Stoppers during a two-week police crackdown.
Catherine Knight wants members of the public to know that such a phone call could have saved her father's life.
''No good can come from illegal firearms, all we ask is if you know of an illegal gun or you yourself are in possession of one, let Crime Stoppers know,'' Ms Knight said.
''The life you could be saving might be your loved one.
''Remember, the cost of a phone call is cheaper than a funeral. We know.''
Bob Knight, 66, was driving through Milperra in Sydney's south-west when he was struck in the head by a stray bullet fired during the carpark brawl.
His son said it was ''the most random thing in the world'' but his family were still feeling the devastating effects of that night five years on.
Mr Knight thought it was a joke at first when a friend of his father's knocked on his front door the morning after the shooting.
''He said, 'you need to go over to your mother's – your father's been shot and he's dead'.''
He had moved his young family back to Canberra not long before his father died so his children could spend more time with their grandparents. ''Both girls have lost their grandfather now and it's sad for them,'' Mr Knight said.
''Because of the irony of the way Dad died, every time I go out I question, 'if I go that way, what's going to happen to me'.''
The pair's mother has not driven a car since her husband's death.
Acting Chief Police Officer David Pryce said Operation Unification was a national initiative designed to get illegal guns out of the hands of criminals and off the streets.
He said the two-week operation, which began today, relied on members of the public to report information about residents who owned, manufactured or traded illicit firearms.
Police collected 110 firearms across Australia during last year's operation.
While incidents of gun crime had fallen across the territory in recent years, Acting Chief Police Officer Pryce said ACT police had been to three incidents which involved a firearm in the past 10 days.
''A firearm is a lethal weapon and, as we saw in the case of Bob Knight, its use or a threat changes what could have been a criminal incident into a lethal situation.
''Often the illegal possession of a firearm is associated with criminality, and often the people killed are innocent bystanders.''
It will be ACT Policing's second recent push to drive down the number of illegal guns in the capital.
An illicit firearms campaign which ended last month netted 36 firearms and more than 3500 rounds of ammunition.
Information about illegal firearms can be reported anonymously to Crime Stoppers, 1800 333 000 or crimestoppers.com.au.
