New firearms programme to target smugglers

Police Commissioner Major General Antony Anderson says that the 'incentive for guns' programme that was recently announced by the Office of the Prime Minister is partially geared towards not only finding illegal firearms but the individuals behind bringing them to the island.

"We have to have a programme that incentivises not just the recovery of the weapon itself but the information that leads to the arrest of the persons who are purveyors of the weapon, who used them, who carry them," Anderson said. Speaking at a press conference yesterday, Anderson said that a lot of the illegal guns make their way into the island on sophisticated networks that are transnational in nature.

"So the programme has to lead directly into a Firearms Act, and the Firearms Act, based on the amendments that I have seen so far, should deal with some of the issues that have been raised by law enforcement for decades and that is how we deal with persons with illegal possession of firearm, or in the possession of what we know is an illegal firearm," he said. "The persons who bring guns into the country, we have to make sure that the act covers that [aspect] with the significance that it deserves so that we don't end up with AK-47s on our streets being carried by killers and gunmen in the community creating terror."

He added "We also have to target the people who are actually carrying those guns and pulling those triggers, and the people who are pulling strings on them to cause them to do what they do." The police have recovered 2,802 illegal firearms since 2018 including 88 in 2022.