The Tribune

By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS

Tribune Staff Reporter

lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis said the government’s collaboration with the United States on gun trafficking has yielded positive results.

His comment came after a US report found that 85 percent of firearms recovered in The Bahamas between 2018 and 2022 were traced to US retail buyers, a highest proportion in the Caribbean.

“We’ve been able to trace, track and some of the straw purchasing in the United States have been arrested and charged in the United States and we are making some progress,” he said.

The US Government Accountability Office report outlined trafficking methods, noting that firearms are often concealed in large items such as automobiles and televisions or disassembled and hidden in household goods like rice bags, cereal boxes, and breakbulk cargo.

Mr Davis said: “Their report confirms what we believe, and I’ve always on the world stage, been speaking about the fact that the United States’ right to bear arms cannot translate or mean right to traffic in arms.”

“It is alarming, as you know, most of our violent crimes are being perpetrated by guns which we don’t manufacture or is being illegally bought into the country and we are attempting to continue ways to stem that tide,” he added.

Mr Davis has been more vocal than his predecessors about the US’s role in this country’s gun problem. Last year, The Bahamas joined Mexico’s $10 billion lawsuit to hold US gun manufacturers accountable for the spread of firearms in the region last year. The government also agreed with the US-based non-profit Global Action on Gun Violence (GAGV) to analyse the prospects of suing firearms dealers, distributors, and manufacturers.

In August, a US judge ruled that Mexico did not demonstrate adequate connections between six of the eight defendants and Massachusetts, where the case was filed. The dismissed companies include Sturm, Ruger, Glock, Barrett Firearms Manufacturing, Colt’s Manufacturing, and Century International Arms. The judge said Mexico failed to show that firearms sold in Massachusetts caused it any harm.

Mr Davis has previously said the government’s decision to join the lawsuit was in support of Mexico to hold US gun manufacturers liable for the harm caused by their products. Antigua and Barbuda, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago also joined the appeal as friends of the court.