Minister of Home Affairs Robeson Benn has disclosed plans to reform the process for the issuance of gun licenses, which could see changes in the laws, including the criteria for eligibility.
“We are going to be changing the laws, changing the requirements, insisting on training because many people still when they get a gun think it’s something to show off with, to pull out to fire shots in the air, to threaten people and where some people who perhaps don’t have the need for a gun are so caught up by the idea that they must have a firearm,” Benn said during a guest appearance on the weekly web programme “Guyana Dialogue” on Thursday night.
According to Benn, the reforms would be undertaken to ensure persons who are granted firearm licences use the weapons “properly” and do not become threats to society. “So you have to have a proper reason in terms of your business or your activities to get a gun licence or if you have a clear and present danger in respect of your life and livelihood in which the security forces and others could not have helped,” he explained.
Currently, Benn said a review is ongoing as it relates to the issue of gun crimes here. The outcome, Benn said, could result in some gun licences being revoked.
There have been numerous complaints over the years about the problems people face when going through the procedure for acquiring a firearm licence.
The Firearms Act covers every facet of the control of firearms including importation, regulations of purchase, possession, manufacture and sale of fire-arms and ammunition, power of minister to make regulations, applications and issuance of firearm licences.
In February 2012, then Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee had announced the establishment of the Firearm Licence Approval Board, which was the result of amendments to the Fire-arms Act which provided for changes in the procedures for the granting of such licences.
“The procedure will be that a person applying for a firearm licence will make such application to the Commander of the respective police division, who will then process the application. Once that is completed it will then pass on to the Police Commission-er who will then forward it to the Firearm Licence Approval Board, who will in turn submit its recommendation to the Home Affairs Minister who will make his views known and then return it to the Commissioner for the administrative aspects to be instituted,” the then Government Information Agency had reported Rohee as stating.
He had added that the Disciplined Services Commission opined that administratively, the minister, if he so wishes, can make amendments to the regulations in order to ensure that it is transparent and more to the satisfaction of an applicant.
