Jamaican govt to pass firearms bill to ban entry of illegal guns

Kingston, Jamaica: The Government is pledging to ban the entry of illegal firearms into the country’s borders by strengthening its capacity to control its territorial waters. Prime Minister Andrew Holness made the announcement earlier this week, noting that a new firearm bill will be brought up in the House of Parliament. 

PM Holness asserted, “We are expanding our capacity to have domain control of our territorial waters. People guess why we are spending all this money; its’ because we must destroy the firearms coming in. That is the reason why we are putting the boats out on sea borders, and we are going to provide more so that we can control our territorial waters”. 

He further underscored that the island does not have a significant issue with legal firearms but with the problem of bringing illegal weapons into islands’ borders via numerous illicit ports. 

Following his above statement, the prime minister added that, “I expect the full support of the Parliament in passing legislation to indicate that Jamaica will remove from our society, the illegal guns and other weapons, in our 60th year. 

The issue has increased a lot that now everybody holds a gun and use it for indiscriminate purposes, PM Holness informed, adding, “I want every individual to dismiss this thought that you can own an illegal firearm to protect yourself“. 

The prime minister cites that this decision was an urgent need of the time to save the lives of the Jamaican citizens.  

“It is not a mechanism that the government can use by itself; it demands a supermajority in Parliament to use it. But our government is always willing to use it because we have devised a mechanism that guarantees that the rights and the lives of Jamaicans are shielded,” he added.   

The Jamaican police usually report cases of possessing illegal firearms, many of which are concerning the murders.