National Security Minister Stuart Young plans to take a new suite of gun legislation to Parliament soon. He believes the new laws will help law enforcement officers eradicate illegal firearms from the streets of T&T and put away the criminal offenders who use them behind bars for a long time.
Young disclosed his plans during a media conference at his Temple Court, Port-of-Spain ministry on Tuesday. He lamented the influx of illegal firearms into the country, saying recent statistics showed an estimate of 9,000 guns, including semi-automatic pistols and assault rifles such as the AR-15s and AK-47s, were in the hands of the criminals.
In a bid to take back T&T from the hands of “shooters” who he described as “little shooters,” Young said the legislation will seek to take away the gun offenders’ rights to bail for 120 days; increase sentences and fines via a tier sentencing and penalty system and for offenders and repeat offenders who may be currently out on bail, the revocation of their bail once they are caught committing other or similar serious offences.
“For a long time we have been looking at it, studying it…we know that every criminal out there wants to have an illegal firearm. Unfortunately, our citizens, for over the last five years, have been suffering at the hands of the criminal elements who unfortunately have access to illegal firearms that are not made in T&T…long time ago criminals used homemade firearms, homemade shotguns, not now,” Young said.
He admitted that the legislation stemmed from a request made by the T&T Police Service along with intelligence agencies, noting he strongly believes the new laws will make criminals think twice before they hold an illegal firearm.
He added that the influx of firearms into the country was a result of our porous borders, especially between the period 2010 to 2015. Young, however, commended officers of the T& Defence Force and the T&T Coast Guard for the work they were doing in protecting T&T’s borders within the last few months and for keeping it less porous.
Young said Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi has agreed to draft the legislation “in the shortest time possible.”
“We have discussed this with the Prime Minister and we have the go-ahead to do the necessary drafting of the legislation,” he said.
Asked if a gun amnesty would be considered in the interim, Young replied: “This Government is not going down the road of a gun amnesty.”
He explained that the reason for this hard stance on an amnesty was because of the accessibility of high-powered weapons now.
“A gun amnesty is when a government takes a decision for people to bring in illegal firearms and not be prosecuted…they just bring it in and they would be allowed to leave…very often the government agency pays a reward. We have looked at it but when we look at the type of firearms available we don’t think a gun amnesty would have that kind of effect,” Young said.
“We are not going to reward them for bringing in the old firearms and once they get a reward for them to go buy new ones.”
He called on members of the public and those on the Opposition bench to support the impending legislation.
The draft, when completed, will be sent before the Legislative Review Committee then before the Cabinet, he said. Once approval is given by Cabinet it will then be laid in the Parliament.
