Getting a gun licence is not that easy. Chairman of the Firearms Appeal Board Israel Khan, SC, says there are over 500 appeals before the board. However, Khan said he was unaware how many were legitimate claims, as the board was yet to meet. The board was only appointed on October 18 last year, under the Firearms (Amendment) Act of 2011, to arbitrate on decisions by the Commissioner of Police not to issue licences to applicants.Now, in 2017, four years later, a member of Parliament is suggesting that the permit process be taken away from the police altogether. From trinidadexpress.com:
Having a firearm, as was the case in Paramin (where a bar owner shot two criminal suspects last week) may enable a citizen to stay alive long enough to call for help from the police. This is not a call for all persons to be given firearms, but for those who qualify to be given a gun chance”.
Khan said a new Commission will undertake the necessary vetting process as prescribed under the Firearms Act to ensure that the applicant is capable to effectively and responsibility own a firearm.
“This is not intended to be a “free for all” but a response to the inadequacies and inefficiencies of the current system. Owning a firearm for self-defense is similar to having fire insurance or health insurance. A citizen does not really think his/her house will burn down, but it might. A citizen does not really think he/she will have a catastrophic car accident, and huge hospital bills, but he/she might. Citizens hope they will never need insurance, but they have it just in case. The same goes for having a firearm for self-defense. It is better to have it and not need it, than to need it, and not have it”, said Khan.
The push for reform is fueled, in part, by an escalating violent crime rate. It does not help that only a few miles of the Caribbean Sea separate Trinidad and Tobago from the Venezuela. Venezuela is descending into socialist chaos, and has one of the highest murder rates on the planet.
The arguments are familiar to Second Amendment activists in the United States. The delays and lack of accountability of the the police and bureaucracy in Trinidad and Tobago are reminiscent of bureaucracies in New Jersey, New York City, and Maryland.
The reforms in Trinidad and Tobago may to bear fruit before residents of New Jersey and New York City obtain relief.
©2017 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
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In order to get rid of permits and licenses I make the suggestion. if it is to help a non vital bureaucracy to float financially, why not demand a reduction in the non functioning legislators pay, and eliminate the bureaucracy. they have capitol security to protect them how about demanding that financial burden be removed? why should we pay for their protection when they will not let us have the same protection. How many of the public die from lack of police protections at our work place or any where else we may be where there is not enough protection? Not enough protection demands self protection. Legislators have unconstitutionally increased their pay and their protection. we have to pay for the president and even ex presidents protections. Why not end the secrete service they were actually created by presidential decree then we were required to pay for them. If you want smaller government start cutting the protections of government employees. any one for huge tax reductions? they still do not explain why we need 16 intelligence agencies. Even the FBI was created by presidential decree. If we need to pay for personal body guards we pay out of our own pocket why should the government employees get it for free at our expense? We have at least five military agencies so why do we need the Department of homeland security according to the constitution we are not supposed to have a standing army. the constitution allows for the navy, only. the department of education was created by presidential decree, How many complaints do we see about it? let the government worry for a change about getting to work safely just like we do. if they really represent us that would be really being representative. they would be taking the same chances we do. and it just might make them listen better to us. It would certainly get rid of the shit eating grins of corrupt politicians and the nasty government employees that nobody seems to be able to get replaced for lack of effort to do their jobs correctly. Our government is way to big and we have to pay for its immense size. if some of those government employees worked for me they would last less than five minutes. too many of them just how up for the pay check. I proved a county department manager committed perjury under oath, what happened to her, absolutely nothing, she is still there 15 years later. The United States congress passed a law that requires social security to process a claim for social security benefits with in six months. at the end of six months they send you a letter of denial and tell you, you should refile. it took a US congressman to get my claim settled after two and a half years and he got me the two and a half years back pay. he got the claim settled in 45 days. Never refile if you do you lose everything you should have been approved for from the date you first filed. appeal or reopen the original claim. but do not file a new claim. Nothing happened to the people working in the Social security office either. they claimed they lost my file for ten months of that two and a half years. a substantially clear violation of the law passed by congress. this is a long story about criminal malfeasants in office. not one person got in any trouble.
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