Georgetown : Public Security Minister, Khemraj Ramjattan pointed out that he will be reviewing the criteria for Fire Arms’ Licence and could possibly make changes or even create a new standard to suit his preferences in this regard.
In responding to a question in relation to persons misusing their licenced fire arms, he said that “I have put all licence matters, that are on my desk on hold, until we work out with the Fire Arm Advisory Board, which I have not as yet met, what are the criteria, the existing ones, and what will be the criteria that I will want…I know a couple of the criteria already, but I think I will want to tweak it a little differently.”
This, he added, will be done soon after his meeting with the board, along with the Commissioner of Police.
The Minister noted that there are “scores and scores of applications on my desk and I’m just holding them…what I would want as part of having a grasp of the situation too, are not only the files that will come up for me to sign off, in relation to the granting of fire arm licences, but I would also want to know how many files were not granted and which have not come up to my desk, and what are the reasons for those too.”
This is because numerous persons have been complaining that they have applied for a fire arm over a number of years, but have not had any response, so the Minister said in addition to those applications that have made their way to him, he would also like to know why the hundreds of others have not.
“It is a big part of this Ministry’s work to ensure that there is no discrimination, that there is fairness, and reasonableness in the progress, and those who are entitled will get, and those who are not entitled will not get,” said the Minister.
In regard to a call from some sections of the population for the revoking of all fire arms’ licences, due to misuse, Minister Ramjattan reiterated that, “I have to review a number of these policies, but I do not want that which is in accordance with the law, that is these grants that were made, to simply be revoked… I could very well be carried to court by a number of people for what is called ‘unreasonableness’ in revoking their grants that they have gotten…it’s not gonna be ‘willy nilly’ and just for the sake of some outside, no I’m going to be measured about it.”
Further, he added that the review process will soon commence “and if indeed I get complaints that people who ought not to get had gotten licences, then I am going to ask for certain reviews… it is not as if you can just go and demand as a minister, take the gun licences away… it is not done that way at all…we have to work through the processes, that is, the administrative processes and so on, that are reasonable before we do that.”
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