Trending in Jamaica News: FLA labelled 19,449 firearms as ‘guns at risk’; permits have not been renewed.
Sometimes the government fail to communicate its intention clearly and succinctly, leaving the public to speculate and form outlandish opinions.
Clearly, Jamaica has a bigger gun problem than its citizens are aware of.
For example, we just learned a day after the recent gun amnesty, which expired on November 19, 2022, that it was aimed not only at guns in the hands of criminals. But also for licensed firearms holders whose permits have not been renewed.
According to the FLA, the record shows that 19,449 firearms permits were not updated between April 2019 and November 11, 2022. The FLA also reported that only about 299 guns have been reported lost or stolen over the last 5 years. The FLA classify these weapons as ‘Guns at Risk.’
So, now that the window on the latest gun amnesty has closed. The FLA says all the permits relating to those firearms will be revoked in a crackdown. And that could result in lengthy prison sentences for delinquent licence holders under the new Firearms, Prohibition, Restriction and Regulation Act. The law went into effect in November.
The FLA said the reason it classified the nearly 20,000 firearms with expired permits as’ guns at risk’, it cannot verify whether the guns are still in possession of the license holders.
“We don’t know if the firearms are still in their possession; we don’t know if the ballistic signatures have changed or whether they (permit holders) have moved. So they are at risk at the moment.” The FLA said
Jamaica Firearms Licensing Authority
But the more significant concern for retired Lieutenant Commander, now security expert George Overton, is whether the guns have fallen into the wrong hands. He pointed out that 80% of the 13,000 murders recorded in Jamaica over the last decade involved firearms. And he hastened to reference the 1,363 murders recorded in Jamaica as of November 16,2022. Which equates to a whopping 5.9% increase over last year.
“We worry about guns being smuggled into the country, but if people are just not renewing and losing their guns, that is a greater problem,” Overton, the operations manager for the Guardsman Group, told The Sunday Gleaner.
Lieutenant Commander, George Overton