CASTRIES, St. Lucia, Jan 19, CMC – Police Monday launched a week long gun amnesty providing what law enforcement officials say is a final opportunity for individuals to surrender illegal firearms and ammunition ahead of an intensified crack down on crime.
Assistant Commissioner of Police, Luke DeFreitas, said the amnesty will run from January 19 to January 23 in the first instance and then resume on January 26 for three days.
“Weekends on record are very active periods for the use of illegal weapons in illegal activity and so anyone caught with firearms, the weekend that separates the two periods will not be subjected to the amnesty, DeFreitas said.
The initiative also targets licenced firearm holders, whose licenses have expired.
“The facility for paying theses licences is closed on Saturday and Sunday, so not to deprive them of these two days we have deliberately skipped them and given them the entire seven days to be able to make these payments.
The police said the amnesty is specific to illegal weapons and ammunition and does not cover weapons seized during police operations. It also does not grant immunity for offences committed with the surrendered weapons.
“Any firearm surrendered will be subject to ballistic testing and should it be found that it is aligned in any way to the commission of any past offence, persons will be made to answer,” he said, adding that amnesty is not a “cash for gun” programme.
“We will not be paying for the surrender of firearms,” he said, adding “we would advise that persons intending to surrender a firearm, make a call to a police station to a police officer or any prominent citizen of their intention to surrender that firearm.
“It leads to evidence of intent that you genuinely intended to surrender that firearm,” DeFreitas said, adding that guns to be surrendered should be unloaded with no bullets also in the barrel.
“It must be secured within some carrier or bag, box or safe, wrapped in a blanket. We encourage persons to take a direct route to the intended point of surrender”
Police Commissioner Verne Garde said that following the amnesty, the police will embark on an operation to rid the island of illegal weapons.
“I think it is really time that the Royal St. Lucia Police Force puts dowj its feet on some of these more serious matter. You cannot have little boys and girls in St. Lucia doing stupidness and the rest of us cannot live the way we suppose to live,” he said.
Meanwhile, police are investigating the death of a man who was shot in Micoud, south east of here over the weekend.
Police said that the unidentified man sustained a gunshot wound to the head and that the circumstances surrounding the incident remain unclear.
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