Deryck Kanhai, the miner who on Tuesday shot four people dead before his own death, was granted two gun licences although he was known to have a violent temper, engaged in indiscriminate shooting displays and had previously shot himself in the chin with an illegal gun.
This has once again renewed concerns about the process through which firearm licences are being granted and the holders of these licences.
Police had said in a press release that they recovered a .32 pistol, a shot gun and a .22 pistol at the scene after Kanhai’s deadly rampage. Kanhai was seen in possession of these three weapons when the shooting started. However, Crime Chief Seelall Persaud yesterday said the miner was not licensed to carry a .22 pistol.
Kanhai’s brother Aubrey told Stabroek News yesterday that his brother did not have a licence when he shot himself in 2010 but he somehow managed to acquire one in 2011. The man said that he was often told by relatives and residents that the man would randomly discharge a shot in front of his house but he had never witnessed these dangerous exhibitions himself.
He said that despite these reports, relatives did not oppose his acquiring a firearm licence.
Police Commissioner Leroy Brumell, when quizzed about the man’s background on Tuesday night, said that he was told that Kanhai was previously charged with wounding his brother. He was unable to provide details about the charge.
Brumell said too that reports indicate that the man had a temper.
However, Crime Chief Seelall Persaud yesterday told Stabroek News that as far as he knew the police had no information about the man having a temper or discharging rounds indiscriminately.
He is that as far as he knew Kanhai had never been taken before the court. When asked about the 2010 self-inflicted shooting, he said that he was unaware of it. Police had, however, issued a statement on the shooting, in which it was noted that a .357 Magnum revolver and one spent shell were recovered and the fact that Kanhai was not the holder of a firearm licence.
Persaud added Kanhai’s relatives would have known a lot about the man’s life but it would be a matter of whether the police were informed about anything.
Out of order
Former Police Commissioner Winston Felix said that the mere fact that the man had shot himself before with an unlicensed gun should have been grounds for his gun licence application not being approved. “If he was in possession of an unlicensed firearm prior to getting approval, the approval was out of order. None of the commissioners I know before me would have issued him with a firearm licence,” he stressed.
There have been many suggestions that one of the determining factors in the approval being given was that the man was a miner. Asked about this, Felix told this newspaper that in light of this case, he hopes that the authorities would now recognise the need for the law in the Firearm Act to be observed rather firearms being given out “willy nilly.”
“The man give you an indication that the man had an unlicensed firearm that he couldn’t use properly and he eventually injured himself. That alone should have discredited him from getting a firearm licence, where now he has turned around and killed four people and had the city in trauma for nearly four hours,” he stressed.
Felix said that among the requirements set out in the law are the person should be free of a criminal record and should be of sound mind. He said that there is also an age limit.
Felix also suggested that before firearm licences are granted, a psychological evaluation of the applicant is one of the first things that should be done before he/she can qualify. “You may have all the requirements but psychological evaluation ought to be done to assess the psychological make-up of a person. I don’t know how many doctors we have capable of doing this sort of work. Some people in stressful situations can trip easily and in my view they should not be entrusted with a firearm once the evaluation puts them in that particular profile,” Felix said, when told that Kanhai had a violent past.
Persaud indicated that an assessment of the applicant’s character is done as part of the current application process.
Wake-up call
Meanwhile, Felix said that this case should be seen as a wake-up call for the government because “the government is misusing the Firearms Act. The government has given themselves power through the Minister of Home Affairs that he can put up a Board….” Felix was referring to the Firearms Approval Board, which was established for a period of one year from January 1, 2012.
He said that prior to the establishment of this Board, it was the sole responsibility of the police commissioner and “the commissioners that I trained under observed the Act to the letter.”
In 2010, the Home Ministry made a move to streamline the formation of an independent Firearms Approval Board after the Disciplined Forces Commission Report recommended that “the Minister of Home Affairs should utilise his statutory powers under the Firearms Act to make standard and uniform regulations with regard to firearm licensing.”
In February last year, Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee had announced that the Firearm Licences Approval Board had been established to ensure more transparency in licensing persons to carry guns and in the registration of firearm dealers.
He had explained that persons who want to a gun licence would have to submit an application to the Police Commander of the Division in which he/she resides, and the Comman-der with other departments of the Guyana Police Force would process the application and refer it to the Commissioner of Police. From the Office of the Commissioner, he added, the application would be forwarded to the board, which would submit a recommendation to the Minister of Home Affairs, who would make his views known on it before returning the application to the Commissioner of Police for administrative action.
Rohee on that occasion had identified Private Sector Commission member Peter deGroot, John Fernandes Ltd Security Manager Cecil Kilkenny and Dr. Bhiro Harry as the members of the board.
