By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

NATIONAL Security Minister Dr Bernard Nottage said yesterday “maybe it is time” to consider a gun amnesty period or gun buy-back initiative in the Bahamas.

He made his comments during the budget debate in the House of Assembly yesterday.

According to Dr Nottage, more than 80 per cent of the murders in the country involved the use of illegal handguns. He said this statistic, along with an increase in armed robberies by 4 per cent, has prompted him to petition the Commissioner of Police and his officers to do more and to seek and determine how these “weapons of death” are entering the country.

He also said it is time for the government to act and one of the actions being considered is the introduction of a gun amnesty period.

“I ask the members of the Opposition would they agree, that maybe the time has come for us to have a firearm amnesty, one week, one month, three months, and ask for guns to be turned in without arresting people. There is an argument about whether amnesty will work, the question in every society is different, but what we want to know is and are they (the Opposition) prepared to support us with a firearm amnesty and maybe even gun buy back initiative. We are going to have to make some serious decisions very soon on whether or not we will support these sort of initiatives,” he said.

“We have to work together on this. The Minster of Foreign Affairs and I along with the Attorney General met with the Attorney General in the Unites States. We want them to help us stop these guns from coming here. They are coming through cruise ships, Bahamians bring them in wrecked cars, they come through Jamaica, the Jamaicans and the Haitians exchange marijuana for guns, they come on Haitian vessels and they come through our ports of entry.”

According to the latest statistics, from January 1 to June 18, the Royal Bahamas Police Force removed over 160 illegal guns and 4,609 rounds of ammunition from the streets.

Last year, a total of 480 guns and 6,516 rounds of ammunition were removed from the streets of the Bahamas.