KINGSTON, Jamaica – National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang has welcomed the decision of the United States legislators to introduce legislation in the Congress addressing the issue of illegal firearms being exported to many Caribbean countries, including Jamaica.
Dr. Horace Chang (File Photo)Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders at their special symposium on crime and violence as a public health issue, held in Trinidad and Tobago, adopted a declaration registering their grave concern at the increase in the illegal exportation of guns from the United States which they regarded as a direct threat to the region’s democracy.
“We call on the United States of America to join the Caribbean in our War on Guns and urgently adopt and take action to stop the illegal exportation of firearms and ammunition into the Caribbean,” according to the declaration.
Congressman Joaquin Castro, Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, Senator Chris Murphy and Senator Tim Kaine have introduced the Caribbean Arms Trafficking Causes Harm (CATCH) Act to help curb illicit arms trafficking from the United States into the region.
Castro said the draft legislation builds on the success of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which focused on cracking down on straw purchases and domestic trafficking offences.
The CATCH Act, if passed, would strengthen efforts in the Caribbean region by requiring an annual report on the prosecution activities of the Coordinator for Caribbean Firearms Prosecutions of the Department of Justice.
Chang, speaking on Radio Jamaica welcomed the fact that the US Congress is taking action to manage the flow of illegal firearms into the Caribbean.
“It seems they are trying to hold the traders and manufacturers more accountable, as to where their guns go, which may reduce the number of firearms to come out,” he told radio listeners, conceding also that “it is a tricky thing because they operate in the under world, so to speak… and also, some of the firearms, though manufactured in the US, come through Central America…”
But Chang said notwithstanding these challenges, “it is good to see legislators taking an interest in it and taking steps that could bring about some more accountability, in relation to arms manufactured in the United States, that are coming to the Caribbean and causing serious problems.”
Former Jamaican Representative at the UN Security Council, Curtis Ward, said that while the CATCH Act is an encouraging further step in the process to curb illicit arms trafficking to Jamaica and the Caribbean, the Bill faces a number of hurdles.
Ward told Radio Jamaica that those who have an extreme pro-gun view of the Second Amendment to the US constitution will resist this new move as part of a creeping erosion of their unfettered right to gun ownership.
He said even with initiatives, such as the Safer Communities Act and the CATCH Act, the U.S. government will have to do more in terms of outgoing cargo screening and interdiction.
Ward said the authorities here must also significantly improve its customs and border control capabilities, including maritime border control.
