A Firearm Licences Approval Board has been established to ensure more transparency in licensing persons to carry guns and registration of firearm dealers, Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee announced yesterday, while defending his new role in the process.
Rohee identified Private Sector Commission member Peter de Groot, John Fernandes Ltd Security Manager Cecil Kilkenny and Dr. Bhiro Harry as the members of the board, which will function for one year with effect from January 1, 2012.
Explaining the application process, he told a press conference at the Police Officers’ Training Complex at Camp Road and Young Street, that persons who want to a gun licence will have to submit an application to the Police Commander of the Division in which he/she resides, and the Commander with other departments of the Guyana Police Force will process the application and refer it to the Commissioner of Police. From the Office of the Commissioner, he added, the application will be forwarded to the board, which will submit a recommendation to the Minister of Home Affairs, who will make his views known on it before returning the application to the Commissioner of Police for administrative action.
Asked what criteria were used to appointing the members of the new board, Minister Rohee said, “We must ensure that these persons are in good standing meaning that they didn’t have any baggage, they weren’t tarnished… [and] that they had some acquaintance with the procedures.”
Later, responding to questions on his involvement in the process, he said that “It has always been that way. The minister is always involved in the licensing of firearms one way or the other. You cannot have a situation where the minister of Home Affairs or National Security is not aware of what is happening with respect of firearms in the country. They must be aware.”
He said further that this matter has been widely debated in the National Assembly. “It was fully debated. Ventilated in the media and we took quite a long time before we arrived where we are,” he noted.
Rohee reminded the Firearm Licence Act had been amended during the last Parliament to enable changes in the process for the granting of licenses.
“The amendments were principally in respect to the regulations for so doing and that amendment read that the minister shall appoint three persons to form the Firearm Licence Approval Board, with clear terms of reference to review all applications received from the commissioner for the granting of firearm licenses and the registration for firearm dealers under Section 18 and 24 of the Act,” he said.
The board, Rohee explained, was established after a recommendation in the report of the Disciplined Forces Commission, which was taken to Parliament. Rohee added that it was the view of the commission that it was better administratively “if the minister so wishes, to make amendments to the regulations in order to make the process more transparent and more to the satisfaction of an applicant.”
