Cayman News Agency: New gun law passed after multiple amendments

[ad_1]

(CNS): Parliament has passed a new gun bill that the government hopes will tackle gun crime in the Cayman Islands. The amendments have been in the works for some time and include tougher penalties for illegal gun possession and changes related to technology such as 3D-printed weapons. Although the bill has been under consultation for weeks, MPs made a number of significant changes to the bill during the committee stage on Tuesday, in some cases having to amend the draft bill multiple times.

An amendment was made during the meeting of the bill committee after Speaker Alden McLaughlin described the provision as “crazy.” The law as drafted would require gun owners to surrender their firearms to police when they leave Cayman for two nights or more.

McLaughlin noted that the RCIPS is not equipped to handle such a process. He also noted that given the stringent security measures gun owners need to take when storing their guns in order to obtain a license, it is “completely crazy” to take a secure weapon out of a safe and turn it over to police because it is both unsafe and requires a bureaucratic process that could lead to a series of errors.

As a result, the attorney general changed the law to extend the time a gun owner can be overseas to 21 days before they must surrender their gun to police.

Gun Amendment Bill (2024) The bill was also reworded to address the potential criminalization of 3D printers, as the initial draft of the bill did not target software programs capable of producing lethal firearms, but rather banned 3D printers themselves.

The bill was eventually redrafted and passed unanimously, introducing tougher mandatory minimum sentences of 15 years for possession of an unlicensed firearm following conviction at trial, and 10 years for those who admit to possession of a firearm.

Mandatory minimum sentences severely limit the courts’ ability to examine the individual circumstances of the offender and how they acquired the illegal gun. The law does not reflect the clear distinction between a person with a criminal record who acquires a gun with the intent to kill or injure a gang rival or rob a gas station and a person without a criminal record who acquires a gun by accident and fails to surrender it due to an error in judgment.

Cayman began implementing mandatory minimum sentences of ten years after trial or seven years after a guilty plea more than a decade ago, and there have been dozens of such cases since then where the offenders had no prior criminal records, the guns were not used in crimes and sometimes were never fired, and the people who illegally possessed the guns did not appear to have intended to use them to commit crimes.

In some cases, those who risked going to trial were acquitted. Others who admitted guilt and argued special circumstances received lighter sentences, especially when they assisted police in committing other crimes. But most did not receive the minimum sentence.

As gun crime increases, tougher sentences appear to be failing to act as an effective deterrent. During the debate, former Prime Minister Wayne Panton was the only member to say that while he acknowledged there was support for raising minimum sentences, it would not solve the problem of gun crime.

However, once the Act is implemented, unless there are special circumstances, anyone who possesses a gun for a short period of time will be convicted of illegal possession of a gun and sentenced to at least 15 years in prison after trial. But this is a very high standard and only a few cases meet this standard.

Lawmakers also passed the long-awaited, detailed, modernized Pharmacy Act, which introduces a new regulatory framework that clearly defines drugs, outlines licensing requirements, and strengthens public health and safety by more effectively regulating the importation, manufacture, and distribution of drugs.

The Freeholds (Amendment) Bill 2024 was also passed without debate. This was requested by the offshore sector and removes the old rules regarding freeholds in trusts for all future real estate trusts. Parliament also passed the Summary Jurisdiction (Amendment) Bill 2024, which will enable all elected members of Parliament to become magistrates and provide most of the relevant services to their constituents, thereby increasing public access to free services such as notarial services.