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Francis
National Security Minister Hermangild Francis has called on individuals who may be thinking of settling conflict through the use of firearms to put away their guns and consider more amicable ways of dealing with their concerns.
Francis was speaking on the heels of the police’s recovery of four firearms last week – among them was a Mac 11 gun, confiscated from an 18-year-old male during a routine operation.
The minister said that the recent busts mean that people should be concerned because such weapons can cause considerable amounts of destruction. He urged the public to come out and help police with information that could reduce gun crimes.
Francis commended the work of law enforcement officers for their recent weapon seizures but said that more is needed.
“They (the police) are working hard but we need more information and as long as we get the information we will act upon it. You need to have the intelligence so you can target individuals. We have a population of over 170,000 people and the police will not be able to speak to everyone at all times. So it’s based on information received by the police, the intelligence that they gather, that we can target individuals,” Francis said.
Nonetheless, the minister assured law breakers that they will be caught sooner or later.
“We need to be able to follow the rules… eventually the law is going to catch up with them. So my advice to them is, put away the guns and settle your problems in a different forum. You can go to counselling, you can go to arbitration, because you should know somebody – a priest, a lawyer- somebody you can go and speak to, and that person can intervene and try and solve the problem for you. But solving problems by using guns, there’s always gonna be retaliation,” he advised.
With regard to the law, the Fire Arms Act says that for the control or possession of a restricted firearm, there is fine of not less than $10,000 or no less than five years in prison, while conviction on indictment brings a custodial sentence of no less than 10 years.
“The laws are being enforced… there are many people who are on… sentence of death but we have not used it. I mean, we have the international pressure on actually using the death penalty. So we have to actually balance the whole situation. The EU does not accept the death penalty… so we have to balance it. It is not something that we can just go and just rush and go and hang people. We have to have a discussion about it and see how best we can deal with it,” the minister noted.
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