Proposed firearm ban for accused domestic abusers triggers debate
Published:Friday | March 18, 2022 | 12:12 AM
Lawmakers locked horns yesterday over a provision in the Firearms (Prohibitions, Restriction and Regulation) Act, 2022, that bars a person charged with an offence involving domestic violence or has a history of domestic violence from obtaining a firearm licence.
The proposed law also empowers the board of the Firearm Licensing Authority (FLA) to revoke a firearm authorisation if the holder is charged with a domestic violence offence.
Fitz Jackson, member of parliament for St Catherine South, expressed reservation about the provision that excludes a person charged with a domestic violence offence.
He argued that to charge someone is synonymous with an allegation, which suggests that the person might not be guilty of the offence. Jackson said the standard for refusal should be a conviction.
“Mere charge, we know many cases go to court and after being charged, it does not go anywhere because it can’t stand up,” Jackson said.
He suggested that it would not be fair to deny someone a firearm licence on the basis of an allegation.
Committee chairman and Minister of National Security Dr Horace Chang made it clear that he did not intend to “dilute” the law for men who are charged with a domestic violence offence.
He insisted that “any report of any individual displaying elements of domestic violence must be refused a licence. I don’t need a conviction; once he is reported to have abused, whether his wife, his girlfriend or his child and there is reasonable information and a report, then he is denied”.
SERIOUS PROBLEM
The national security minister said that domestic violence in Jamaica remained a very serious problem, and a strong message must be sent to the perpetrators.
He reasoned that there was no right to bear arms in Jamaica and that he could not allow an alleged domestic abuser to hold a firearm even for a day.
Committee member Senator Peter Bunting cautioned that the legislation was cast too wide and could disqualify many applicants who have been accused of alleged wrongdoing by persons with malicious intents.
Bunting told the committee that when he was minister of national security there was a case in which a spouse told an investigator that her partner had a temper and, therefore, should not be issued a firearm licence.
He explained that when the applicant appealed the decision, the spouse later told the panel that she made up the story because she did not feel comfortable with a firearm in the house.
“What you are inviting is just arbitrary and capricious decisions at the level of the FLA ... . The reason we have a review board is that issues like this can be tested,” he said.
Minister of Legal and Constitutional Affairs Marlene Malahoo Forte cautioned that the call to adjust the provision in the bill might be interpreted as “a lowering of the standard and a lowering of the bar to just free up di ting, so any man who want di firearm can just get it, forgetting the problem that the firearm poses”.