As part of its crime-fighting strategy, the Ministry of Home Affairs is currently having consultations with the Legal Affairs Ministry on increasing the penalties for persons who commit gun-related crimes in the country.
This is according to Home Affairs Minister Robeson Benn on Wednesday during the unveiling of the game-changing Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) at the Guyana Forensic Science Laboratory (GFSL).
“And there is an intention to raise the legal sanctions in relation to gun crimes and some other crimes. This is one of the discussions we are having with the Attorney General’s teamers and the Attorney General and at the level of the Cabinet to get on top of the situation.”
The minister highlighted that gun crimes are steadily increasing, aided by transnational organised activities.
Nevertheless, Benn is hoping that this issue will be addressed with the strengthening of penalties for gun-related crimes.
“I keep saying that we don’t make a bicycle spoke yet in Guyana. We don’t make guns. Now they are 3D printed on computers. The guns are coming from the north and from Europe too and other places where they make those things. And it’s a great difficulty that we are having in relation to dealing with rising crime, which is driven by transnational issues, the drugs, the money laundering.”
Only earlier this week at his ministry’s 2024 year-end press conference, Benn disclosed that over 180 firearms were seized last year – weapons that did not originate from Guyana.
“They’re not made in Guyana. We barely could make a bicycle spoke but these firearms come from the north and the northeast and are a pervasive issue in relation to criminal activities being done in the country,” the Home Affairs Minister stressed.
On this note, Benn underscored the need for local law enforcement agencies to ramp up inspection exercises within the country in a bid to crackdown on illegal firearm distributors.
At a press conference back in November, Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum had disclosed that some 162 firearms, seized from January 1 to November 11, 2024, originated mostly from the United States as well as from Brazil and Venezuela among other countries in Europe and Asia.
