Latest update March 7th, 2025 7:05 AM
Firearms (Amendment) Bill…AG must be more intellectual in responses – AFC
Alliance For Change (AFC) leader, Khemraj Ramjattan, has said that his party will re-table the Firearms (Amendment) Bill as a private members Bill coming from the AFC. The joint opposition voted against the Bill last March. It had been piloted by Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee, against whom the Opposition had passed a motion of no-confidence,
Alliance For Change (AFC) Leader Khemraj Ramjattan
last year.
Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, is contending that the crime situation is linked to the failure of the government side to pass the Firearms (Amendment) Bill which was voted down by the opposition last March.
“That Attorney General must understand that he must be more intellectual in his responses to what is causing the crime situation. We do not believe that the objection to this Bill had anything to do with the increase in crime,” Ramjattan emphasized.
“However, as promised, we are going to retable the both Bills and we will have them up for the approval of the National Assembly as a private members’ Bill coming from the AFC.”
He said what the AG has been speaking about recently must be cause for concern. “We in the AFC would wish to tell him that as AG he must speak as AG for the whole country and not just as counsel for the PPP or any cabal of the PPP, since it will take Guyana no place. Note must be given to the root causes of crime and Guyana must professionalize the police force.”
Ramjattan noted that if the logic of the AG is correct then after the Bills are passed in the National Assembly then there should be a reduction in crime.
The combined opposition used its one-seat majority in the National Assembly on March 14, 2013 to vote against legislation brought by the government which if passed would have seen tougher penalties for gunrunners.
Minister Rohee had proposed in the legislation several amendments to the substantive Firearms Act which were long overdue and had become necessary, given the spike in gun-trafficking and gun-related crimes. He had said that the government was particularly concerned about the impact that trafficking and the importation of guns were having on the socio-economic fabric of society, as well as the safety and security of citizens.
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