The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

AFTER acknowledging that the bulk of this country’s homicides are committed with a firearm, National Security Minister Dr Bernard Nottage indicated on Wednesday that the government can still do more to prevent gun trafficking to The Bahamas.

Speaking to reporters outside the House of Assembly, Dr Nottage suggested that inspection processes at the country’s borders are currently too weak to grapple with the problem.

His statement came after he admitted progress on the matter would not come through legislative changes on firearms in the United States, the country from where more than 95 per cent of illegal guns in The Bahamas originate.

“You’ll never see (legislative changes in the US) in my lifetime, unfortunately,” he said. “The Second Amendment gives (Americans) the right to carry guns. We have to continue to find our solution. The other day a young man was found taking a gun out of the country.

“What we found is that he had brought the gun into the country a few days or weeks before but it hadn’t been detected. And if you look at tourists who come to The Bahamas though LPIA and don’t have any customs checks or anything, that’s a possibility for them. Things like that we have to look at and insist that our customs officers really rummage people’s vessels when they come in.

“They have a lot of weapons on these boats and I always say, ‘Do they take them back out with them when they leave?’ They have to declare these guns when they come in but nobody checks when they go out to see if they are carrying them back out. We have to find a solution to these issues.”

Dr Nottage’s comments follow those US Chargé d’Affaires Lisa Johnson made several weeks ago in which she argued that local legislative changes can be made to deal with the problem.

She told reporters: “One example and something I’ve been discussing with people in the government is another country in the Caribbean has passed legislation making it illegal to import a gun in your checked luggage on an aircraft and it’s actually very effective.

“In Miami, for example, when someone goes aboard the aircraft the airline will see a red banner across the top that says it is illegal to import a firearm in your checked luggage and they will tell (the person) if they have a gun in a luggage that it has to come out. That’s just one really simple measure.”

But even as Dr Nottage suggests that steps to address gun trafficking have not been exhausted, his statements and those of Ms Johnson reflect what some see as a concerning reality. Despite anxiety about crime and the role guns play in the matter, four years into its term, the Christie administration only now appears on the verge of implementing a concrete plan to address the problem.

FNM Deputy Leader Peter Turnquest yesterday said: “What has taken them so long?”

“That (Dr Nottage is now talking about steps to deal with gun trafficking shows) they have not been doing much of anything,” he said. “One of the first priorities that this government chose was actually to reduce penalties for gun possession, reducing the total from seven to four. How does that demonstrate to the criminal community that they’re serious about the issue of illegal guns? On top of that, they haven’t engaged in any meaningful legislative reform since then, even as this issue has been on the top of the minds of Bahamians for years. They have only paid a lot of lip service but little action.”

In 2015, the country had a record-breaking 149 homicides.