He stood outside the Kamarang Police Station, no longer the smiling man he was a day earlier. “Can’t hunt for lil food now,” Jeremy* said, his attempt at a smile more of a grimace. His wife, solemn, stood silently by his side.
Over the past few weeks, dozens of indigenous families in the Upper Mazaruni grappled with whether to surrender their shotguns to the police under the gun amnesty programme which began on September 1 and which was due to end on September 30. (It has since been extended to October 14.) They have since turned in the most firearms from across Guyana with 115 shotguns