Law to be tightened to cover 3D and kit guns
(CNS): An extensive amendment bill has been drafted to replace the Firearms Law to help police meet some of the challenges they face regarding guns and keep up with changing technology.
The legislation, which is expected to go before parliament next month, prohibits, among other things, 3D-printed guns and parts and empowers the police commissioner to collect ballistic signatures and other gun-related forensics.
The bill also increases the already relatively high mandatory minimum sentence for possession of a gun, regardless of whether or not it is used in a crime, from seven years to ten for a guilty plea and to 15 years from ten for defendants convicted after trial.
Firearms have been dominating the headlines over the last few years, and Police Commissioner Kurt Walton has said that some young men in Cayman have an “insatiable appetite for guns”. With a string of unsolved armed robberies and shootings in recent years and some 90 illegal guns that have been used in crimes currently on the streets, local legislators had committed to amending the law to tighten up loopholes and meet the growing illegal possession.
The amendment bill published on Friday will replace the current act, which was passed 16 years ago. According to the “objects and reasons” for the bill, it will provide a new definition of “firearm” to cover privately made 3D and kit guns as well as accessories and all prohibited firearm parts. The law will prohibit gun owners from securing a licence for any 3D-printed weapons or parts.
Anyone convicted of possessing and using such weapons could face up to 35 years in jail, which is longer than the 30-year statutory life sentence for murder.
The supporting memo for the legislation states that these changes are in recognition of the global challenge being faced by police, where access to software facilitates the creation of guns with three-dimensional printing technology.
In a recent case, charges against a Canadian-Israeli-Russian national who had imported three unlicensed guns when he came to work here were dismissed on a technicality. The defendant had declared them under a section of the old law that relates to people who have legal firearms aboard a boat or private jet. The new bill closes this loophole.
The proposed legislation, which is understood to have full support among MPs and is expected to pass, also introduces a new offence relating to the alteration of a firearm or conversion of anything into a gun. This section of the bill also prohibits anything that alters the ballistic signature or tampering with marks on a weapon.
The insertion of another new section into the principal act empowers the police commissioner to collect and store physical and digital ballistic signatures and information relating to the use of guns. Cayman now has a busy ballistics hub, which was established several years ago and well after the current legislation was passed in 2008.
The law is also being amended to add members of the Cayman Islands Coast Guard to the list of people who can legally possess a firearm, ammunition, bullet-proof vest, prohibited device or prohibited weapon in the course of their work.
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Guns don’t kill people. People kill people.
But hey, let’s let the murderers free in less than ten years.
Pathetic NRA slogan for pathetic people.
Better slogan: People with guns are more likely to kill people. It’s easier and makes them feel tough.
What’s the point in increasing the sentences when they always pull the “exemptional circumstances” card and let them out after 2 years anyway?
“The law will prohibit gun owners from securing a licence for any 3D-printed weapons or parts”, but unlicensed illegal printing will not also be a crime? What if you aren’t a registered gun owner? Possession of the downloaded or created *.stl image file for any 3D weapon or part on a hard drive, cloud account, or thumb drive, should pass the criminal threshold in this jurisdiction. Shouldn’t even have to print it. Then again, anyone actually relying on such a weapon not blowing up in their face, may not experience the intended outcome.
It seems to me that this policy is more about eliminating the right to own a gun on the island than about deterring crime. Am I understanding this correctly? Will gun owners be allowed to work as gunsmiths on their own firearms? From what I’m reading, will this now make customized guns illegal if you aren’t allowed to use parts from other manufacturers after the gun has been purchased, except during manufacturing and even then only with parts from two different companies? Additionally, will reloading equipment be considered illegal for legal gun owners? Also, does this mean that pepper spray remains illegal?
In my view, if you are a Cayman citizen with no criminal record, you should have the right to own and access guns. If I had the political power, I would arm every Caymanian. Every home in the Cayman Islands should have a gun. This policy reflects an EU/UK desire to restrict and eliminate freedoms. Shame on the politicians who support this overreach of the anti-gun agenda.
There are too many fine print details here that could easily ensnare a legal gun owner, potentially turning them into a criminal.
A gun in every home would lead to kids killing kids accidentally, suicides going up, guns going missing etc.
Spend a night or two with RCIPS frontline officers. They’re not attending shooting incidents every day, but they are going to domestics every day. You want guns in that environment? you’re a fool.
I’d be okay with treating the download of unlicensed firearm model plans and parts as satisfying criminal intention test. There is no other reason to do it.
I applaud this amendment to the current laws – seems very logical. But it makes me wonder (with no answer) why this got logically fast-tracked, but so many others with equal merits languish for years with no movement. CIG… any comments?
My friend uses a gun in his oven to help distribute the heat more evenly. And he also has one in his toilet water tank to help economise on water. Does the new amendment close these loopholes too?
Asking for my friend.
Stupid questions for a very serious topic. I guess you are here to muddy the discussion.
The only stupidity here is from you. That person was referencing very REAL examples of gun possession and storage that seemed not be serious enough to warrant time in Northwood.
They even forgot storing it under the passenger seat for extra stability around tight corners, counter balances the driver when alone in the car.
I also know someone who has one in his fridge for keeping his food cold when the power goes off.
I wouldn’t recommend the oven, as it could cook off any ammunition.
The toilet, hmmmm? Could turn it rusty and they’d need to buy a new one. I hope they’re feeling flush.
Are the newly-armed CI Coast Guard working for us, or someone else?
We urgently need to increase the mandatory service delivery expectations for the RCIPS from Purple Ribbon hours, to all-year-round. The vehicles carrying lawless youths should stand to be stopped regularly on tour, ticketed, occupants searched if probable cause, and the drugs, guns, ammo, and dealers are removed from the public community. With that expectation, violent opportunistic crime will plummet. Officers just need to show up for work, and execute the duty functions they are already being paid to undertake. If after serving notice this can’t be sorted out in the next 6 months, the RCIPS leadership fat should be trimmed.
All great thoughts, but this is Cayman – never will happen – too logical. Those voted into Ministers will not understand your big words.
By big words, you must mean “showing up for work”?