Last week, the Commissioner of Police responded to a UDP Press release proposing a moratorium on gun licenses by blasting the UDP. He said that when they were in power many criminals received gun licenses. He also suggested that as commissioner under the UDP he had a hard time revoking the gun licenses of those who had done wrong - but it was a very different case with the PUP.
Today, the UDP Shadow Minister for National Security challenged the commissioner to open the records of gun licenses issued to see who has been issuing the most licenses:
Mike Peyrefitte, UDP Shadow Minister, Nat'l Security
"Under the law the commissioner of police is the only person authorized to issue a gun license, under the law. So, cabinet can say give a personal gun license and if the commissioner of police doesn't want to, he doesn't have to and it doesn't happen. Under the law there is one provision as well that if the commissioner refuses, the person can write to the minister of police, explain their situation and then the minister can override the commissioner of police."
"I can tell you during my tenure one individual who was rejected by the commissioner wrote to me. I looked at the situation the person had no criminal record, the person was a business man. I got advice from the crown council who said well the person has a legitimate expectation to expect a gun license, because other people with similar situations have gotten. So, I instructed the commissioner of police to grant a gun license to that person. He still refused, because he thought in his mind rightfully so that we will be out of office in about a month or two anyway, so he didn't have to listen to me."
"Jules, we don't have to speculate, we can do a commission of inquiry. Don't this government love commission of inquiry. Let's go back 6 years, let's go back 10 years, release the list of all licensed gun holders in Belize, the weapons they have and all of that and then the people can assess for themselves who are the criminals and who are not the criminals. Let the books be open, so we can see and then that will speak for itself wont it? I mean he can cast aspersions on us, we can cast on him, but we don't need to do that. Open the books and let's see who have gun licenses, let's see who have gotten gun licenses since November of 2020. Compare that to the previous years and then we can make and assessment on our own. It may explain a lot of things."
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