Opposition Leader David Granger says a more effective police force would reduce the need to license private citizens to hold guns for protection.
Granger also believes that the licensing process should be reformed to ensure it is the sole remit of the police, but says addressing the illegal importation of guns is the key first step towards dealing with the country’s gun problem.
His comments come in wake of last Tuesday’s shooting rampage by miner Deryck Kanhai, who shot four people dead, including two policemen, before he too was shot and killed after a three-hour stand-off with lawmen.
Numerous questions have been raised about why Kanhai was a licensed firearm holder when he was known to have a violent temper, had engaged in indiscriminate shooting displays and had previously shot himself in the chin with an illegal gun.
He had shot himself in 2010 and the following year police granted him a licence to carry a gun. At the time of his death, Kanhai was holder of not one but two firearm licences–one for a shotgun and the other for a .32 pistol. He used both weapons and an unlicensed .22 pistol during his murderous rampage.
Neither the police force nor the Ministry of Home Affairs has explained how Kanhai ended up with those licences.
Asked about the licensing process recently, Granger told the Sunday Stabroek that “because of the force’s weakness, a decision had been taken to place firearms into the hands of people who do not need firearms.” He said that the police are the ones who ought to be protecting citizens and ensuring human safety and if that fact is taken into consideration that the need for the granting of licences would be reduced.
“We can’t give everybody a weapon to protect themselves. The police must protect us all and I think that it is a strategic error to think that we can put weapons in the hands of private citizens to protect themselves, then we keep the police force so weak,” a Granger, a former national security adviser, said.
“What I am saying is that the force must be strengthened to reduce the need of private citizens and businessmen to have weapons because the more weapons there are the more weapons will be stolen and the more armed confrontations you would have,” he emphasised.
‘Licensing – a professional matter’
Granger also called for the exclusion of political influence in the licensing process. “There must be zero—no political interference in the issuing of these firearms and as far as I am concerned it is a professional matter that should reside within the Guyana Police Force,” he said.
He added that applicants should satisfy professional criteria and once those criteria are met, it should be up to the police to decide whether the licence should be granted.
“I don’t think there should be any political input at all and I don’t even think there is need for civil society input. It is a professional matter and the police force is responsible for doing background checks,” he noted.
According to Granger, if applicants do not satisfy the criteria, the police should be the final arbiter in determining whether the licenses should be issued. “But, in general, I think that there should be better control. Control should reside in the Guyana Police Force and not in the Ministry of Home Affairs, not in the minister,” he said.
Kanhai’s brother Aubrey had told this newspaper 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.
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.
A day after the shooting, main opposition APNU issued a statement condemning the Ministry of Home Affairs for “its lax policy on gun ownership and control,” which it blamed for the resulting rise in armed robberies and gun crimes.
It quoted Granger as saying, in the light of Tuesday’s shooting, that a big part of the problem was “the rampant gun running; lax attitude to gun licensing by the Ministry of Home Affairs; and weak law enforcement by the Guyana Police Force.”
APNU added that Granger also reiterated his call for tighter border security to prevent illegal guns entering the country, an increase in the strength of the Guyana Police Force to bring it up establishment levels and improvement in the standard of training for members of the force.
Granger said that there is need for a holistic approach to not only gun licensing but by extension the large amount of illegal weapons that are in the country. He said that he had insisted that the Guyana Police Force be equipped to prevent the importation of illegal weapons. “As you know, we have a 1,200-kilometre border with Brazil and Brazil is one of the largest exporters of small arms. As long as we do not control that border and all of the other borders there are going to be illegal weapons in the country and I think that many of the crimes being committed are with illegal weapons,” he noted.
He added that the country is now faced with a huge issue when it comes to guns. “I think that we are dealing with a big problem. It is not just a licensing problem,” Granger said, while adding that the first step is to address the illegal importation of weapons.
Stringent vetting
The Home Ministry responded on Friday but failed to explain why Kanhai had two licenses when he was clearly unstable.
In its response to Granger, the ministry said that blaming it for the rampage was both “nonsensical and shameless.”
“The claims of “rampant gun running”, “lax attitude to gun licensing by the Ministry of Home Affairs” and “weak law enforcement by the Guyana Police Force” are but a clear demonstration of the level of Mr. Granger’s ignorance of the work of the Ministry, and its achievements in the security sector,” it said in a statement.
Addressing firearms licensing, the ministry said it implemented the recommendation of the Disciplined Forces Commission, of which Granger himself was a member. It explained that a Firearms Licensing Approval Board was established in April 2010, by way of Regulations under the Firearms Act (Cap 16:05) and this Board is actively considering recommendations made by the Police for persons to be licensed. “No one is automatically granted a firearm license. All applicants are vetted, and stringently so,” it noted.
Minister Clement Rohee had explained previously that persons who wanted a gun licence would 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 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.
In response to Granger’s calls for “tighter border security to prevent illegal guns entering the country,” the ministry said it was astounding in light of the fact that the Firearm Amendment Bill, which was taken to National Assembly in March of this year, was rejected under Granger’s leadership of the opposition.
“By voting against the bill, Granger in effect sent a strong signal to the gun smugglers that he is there to watch their backs,” it charged.
The ministry noted that the bill was intended to address loopholes in the substantive Act in regard to the trafficking of firearms, and the instituting of penalties for such activities. The opposition’s non-support of the bill was part of its continuing opposition to Rohee’s continued tenure as Home Affairs Minister.
Meanwhile, the ministry said full support is given to boosting the level of recruitment, and training in the police force and this is being complemented by the force’s ongoing reform and modernisation process, which it accused Granger of ignoring.
“We remain convinced that the combined opposition is in fact working to protect the criminal underworld in Guyana. The belief being peddled by Granger and his ilk that they have the ‘silver bullet’ in their gloves in respect to challenges confronting the security sector in Guyana is a myth that cannot be substantiated,” the ministry said, while adding that it “will not be distracted by the ‘sour-pusses’ in the APNU and their negative spirit.”
