Latest update February 6th, 2025 7:27 AM
Guyana receives ‘Firearm Marking’ machine….
-equipment will help combat illegal firearm trafficking …
Minister of Home Affairs, Clement Rohee, yesterday received a Styliner Mark 3 dot-peen marking machine from the Organisation of the American States (OAS) Country Representative, Dennis Moses, as Guyana joined several Caribbean countries and Latin America in promoting firearms marking practices.
This is a new method to strengthen efforts to combat the trafficking of illegal firearms in the hemisphere
The donation was made within the framework of the project ‘Promoting Firearms Marking in Latin America and the Caribbean’ which is an initiative generously funded by the Government of the United States.
At the handover yesterday was representative from the Organisation of American States, Dennis Moses, who congratulated the Guyana Government for taking this step.
According to Moses, over the last decade reported murders per capita in 13 of 14 Caricom countries have increased from 14.84 in 2000, to 24.96 in 2009.
Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee accepting the equipment yesterday
He said that the region has also experienced a surge in gang violence. It was explained that firearm marking is a process that permanently marks weapons with identifiable information such as serial numbers, names and place of manufacturer or importer, model and caliber.
Moses said that it is an essential step for helping law enforcement trace recovered firearms used in crimes as well as to identify trafficking routes and traffickers.
He said that as a result of this programme, it is expected that tens of thousands of firearms will be marked throughout the hemisphere and that all member states will have effective policies and legislations in place to support this important and relatively inexpensive practice.
Moses in his address highlighted the fact that the Caribbean serves as a transit region for drugs moving north and the illicit firearms moving south.
The Minister, in accepting the equipment, said that it will go a far way in boosting the efficiency of law enforcement agencies in Guyana. “This equipment will contribute to the capacity building and institutional strengthening of our law enforcement agencies…It will also send a strong signal to those who are engaged in illegal trafficking in firearms in this country and to alert them that this equipment will help us trace the illegal firearms that are used in committing criminal activities,” the Home Affairs Minister said.
He assured that Guyana stands ready to cooperate fully with all the other international partners who are part of this project in so far as information sharing/gathering is concerned.
Minister Rohee also said, “We have always maintained that as crime becomes more sophisticated, we who are engaged in this fight have to become more sophisticated in terms of the equipment we use to conduct this fight.”
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