Minister of Home Affairs Oneidge Walrond is pushing back against any suggestions of irregularities in the firearm licensing process, assuring the public that strict scrutiny is applied to every single applicant and that no licences are being granted randomly.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a recent event, Walrond said the law has always required a rigorous review process, and that standard has been consistently maintained under her watch.
“There has always been the law requires strict scrutiny of every single applicant, which is what I at my office, since I have taken over the office, have done and continue to do,” the Minister said.
She was equally firm in dismissing any notion that licences are being handed out carelessly.
“You would not get reports of ad hoc licences being issued out of the office of the Minister of Home Affairs. They are all well scrutinised for those that are done and they are done very carefully,” Walrond told reporters.
The Minister also addressed a recent incident in which a child was found in possession of a licensed firearm at a school, describing it as a serious breach on the part of the licence holder rather than a failure of the licensing system itself. She stressed that firearm holders are legally obligated to keep their weapons either on their person or securely stored at all times.
“That’s a serious infraction of the licence, but that is a total different issue,” she noted.
On the matter of the growing backlog of firearm licence applications, Walrond confirmed that the Ministry is in advanced stages of reviewing the use of non-lethal but highly effective weapons a proposal put forward by President Dr. Irfaan Ali in February as part of efforts to address the public’s needs while clearing the backlog.
“The Ministry is reviewing that and is in advanced stages of reviews to have those kinds of weapons issued,” she said.
