ITERATING that there are too many guns on the streets, First Vice President and Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan has said the process to repossess the licences of those no longer eligible to have a weapon will commence in the coming months.This initiative, springing from weekly Cabinet discussions and some lobbying by colleague ministers, is supposed to target those who no longer need a firearm, are mentally unfit, or were wrongly issued firearm licences.

However, cognizant of possible concerns, Minister Ramjattan has said that a clear process would be observed to determine who keeps their firearm and who doesn’t.

“You have people who are depressed shooting themselves and others; you have people who had large sums of money but have gone bankrupt; people who stopped hunting and are no longer in agriculture, or have gotten very old. What do you do? They still have their firearms,” Ramjattan asserted.

CIRCUMSTANCE CHANGED
Questioned about claims of discrimination, as are being alleged by the political opposition, Ramjattan said he is “absolutely certain” that the process would be clear. “We are not discriminating on the grounds of race or political reasons, but on the grounds that the circumstance would have changed for a person, and the reason why they needed the gun is no longer the same.”

Persons undeserving of a firearm licence could include those with criminal records acquired before or subsequent to receiving a firearm licence, who maintained possession of their firearm regardless; and those who accessed a shortcut in legally acquiring a weapon. Allegations did surface that the full application process was not being utilized, thus persons were making money off the sale of gun licences.

The Guyana Police Force, in collaboration with information technology company Brains Street, is designing and building an integrated crime information system to allow inter-agency access by security forces to various types of crime-related information. Ramjattan said the programme is moving along, but more equipment has to be acquired to facilitate the national network.

FIREARM MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

A special ‘firearm management system’ is included in the crime information system to help the agencies determine the legality of a firearm holder, since such persons would be listed in a database of registered gun holders. The firearm management system would also provide a paper trail on how a gun was acquired, since it would show the steps that were taken, all the way to the Firearm Licensing Board.

Police Commissioner Seelall Persaud and divisional commanders who are the first set of authorities to be approached in the licensing process will help review licences to determine whether or not they should be renewed.