New gun law steered through after many changes
(CNS): Parliament has passed new firearms legislation that government hopes will address the problem of gun crime across the Cayman Islands. The amendments, which include harsher penalties for illegal possession and changes relating to technology such as 3-D printed weapons, have been in the works for some time. While the legislation has been under consultation for several weeks, MPs still made numerous and significant changes to the legislation at the committee stage on Tuesday, in some cases having to amend the draft bill several times.
One change was made during the sitting of the bills committee after Speaker Alden McLaughlin described the provision as “madness”. The law as drafted would have required licensed firearms holders to surrender their guns to the police if they left the Cayman Islands for two nights or more.
McLaughlin pointed out that the RCIPS does not have the capacity to handle such a process. He also pointed out that, given the strict safety and security measures required by owners for storing guns in order to secure a licence in the first place, it was “utter madness” to take a secured weapon from a safe and hand it to police, where it would be less secure and subject to a bureaucratic process that could open the door for a catalogue of errors.
As a result, the law was re-written by the attorney general to increase the time that an owner would be overseas to 21 days before being required to give their firearm to the police.
The Fire Arms Amendment Bill (2024) was also reworded to address the potential criminalisation of 3-D printers, as the original draft bill had been written in such a way that instead of targeting software programmes that can produce lethal firearms, it could have seen the machines themselves outlawed here.
The bill was eventually re-written and passed unanimously, introducing an even harsher mandatory minimum sentence of fifteen years for possession of an unlicensed gun following conviction after trial or ten years on an admission.
Mandatory minimum sentences severely restrict the ability of the court to look at the individual circumstances of the offenders involved as well as how they became in possession of an illegal gun. The law does not reflect the clear difference between a person with a criminal record who acquires a gun in order to kill or injure a gang rival or to hold up a gas station and an individual with no criminal history who comes across a gun unintentionally and through a lapse of judgement fails to hand it.
There have been dozens of cases since the mandatory minimum sentence of ten years after trial or seven years following a guilty plea was introduced in Cayman more than a decade ago where the offender has no previous convictions, the gun has not been used in a crime, sometimes having never been fired at all, and there has appeared to be no intent for the person in illegal possession to commit an offence with it.
In some cases those who have risked a trial have been acquitted. Others who have made admissions and argued exceptional circumstances have been given lower sentences, especially where they have assisted police with other crimes. But most have not and have been given the minimum terms.
Handing down harsh sentences does not appear to have been a successful deterrent as gun crime has increased. During the debate, former premier Wayne Panton was the only member who said that while he accepted there was support for an increase in the minimum sentence, it would not be the solution to the problem of gun crime.
However, once the bill is implemented, merely holding a gun for a brief period will land someone convicted of illegal possession a minimum of 15 years in jail after trial unless there are exceptional circumstances. But this is a very high bar that has only been reached on a handful of occasions.
Lawmakers also passed the long-awaited, detailed and modernised Pharmacy Act. The bill introduces a new regulatory framework, sets clear definitions for medicines, outlines licensing requirements, and enhances public health and safety by regulating the import, manufacture and dispensing of medicines more effectively.
The Perpetuities (Amendment) Bill, 2024 was also passed without debate. This is to remove an old rule against perpetuities relating to trusts for all future property trusts, as requested by the offshore sector. Parliament also passed the Summary Jurisdiction (Amendment) Bill, 2024, which will enable all elected members of parliament to become justices of the peace and offer most of the associated services to their constituents, increasing access to things like notary services for the public, free of charge.
Watch the debate on the firearms law on CIGTV:
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Category: Crime, Crime Prevention, Laws, Politics
The **Firearms (Amendment) Bill, 2024** of the Cayman Islands proposes several amendments to the existing firearms regulations. These changes include:
1. **Broadening the Definition of “Firearm”**: The bill expands the definition to include privately made firearms (e.g., 3D-printed firearms), firearm parts kits, and accessories like suppressors. It excludes antique firearms and certain airsoft weapons or flare guns.
2. **Introduction of “Prohibited Devices” and “Prohibited Weapons”**: This includes a wide range of items such as automatic firearms, submachine guns, grenades, reloading machines, and others. The bill also defines prohibited ammunition, including armor-piercing rounds and other specialized types of ammunition.
3. **Restrictions on Importation and Manufacture**: The bill imposes strict restrictions on importing, manufacturing, and altering firearms and their parts. Specific penalties are set for violating these restrictions, including heavy fines and long prison terms.
4. **Ballistic Signature Collection**: The bill gives the Commissioner of Police the authority to collect ballistic signatures, which are unique marks left on bullets or cartridge cases by firearms, to aid in law enforcement.
### Comparison with Other Countries and Concerns about Overreach
**United States**:
– The U.S. has the Second Amendment, which protects the right to bear arms. There is significant variation in gun laws across states, but generally, there is no federal requirement for ballistic signature registration. Some states have their own regulations on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, but these are often contested in courts.
**Canada**:
– Canada has stricter gun control laws compared to the U.S., including registration requirements for certain firearms and restrictions on certain types of weapons and ammunition. Recently, Canada introduced more stringent regulations on assault-style firearms and is moving towards a ban on handgun imports.
**United Kingdom**:
– The UK has some of the strictest gun laws in the world. The possession of firearms requires strict licensing, and certain types of firearms, including semi-automatic and automatic weapons, are generally prohibited. The UK also has comprehensive rules against possessing ammunition without proper authority.
### Analysis of Potential Overreach
The **Firearms (Amendment) Bill, 2024** appears to implement significant controls over firearm possession and use, aligning more closely with stricter regimes like those in Canada and the UK. Key concerns about potential overreach might include:
1. **Comprehensive Definition of Firearms**: The broad definition could encompass items not typically considered firearms, such as certain airsoft guns, leading to potential criminalization of otherwise legal activities.
2. **Severe Penalties**: The proposed penalties for violations are quite severe, with long prison sentences and substantial fines, which might be seen as disproportionate, especially for minor infractions or for items that are borderline in their categorization (e.g., certain types of ammunition or firearm accessories).
3. **Ballistic Signature Collection**: While useful for law enforcement, mandatory ballistic signature collection could be seen as intrusive and might raise privacy concerns.
4. **Prohibited Devices and Weapons**: The broad list of prohibited items, including electroshock weapons and certain types of ammunition, might limit citizens’ ability to possess non-lethal forms of self-defense or engage in lawful sporting activities.
Overall, the amendments propose substantial restrictions and penalties, potentially limiting access to firearms and related items beyond what is seen in many other countries that allow civilian firearm ownership. This could be viewed as an overreach by those advocating for more lenient firearm laws, especially if the regulations impact lawful and non-dangerous uses of such items.
Under the proposed amendments, a legal gun owner in the Cayman Islands would face substantial restrictions on gunsmithing activities. The bill’s language suggests that most, if not all, modifications, assembly, or customizations of firearms would be prohibited. This includes simple activities like adding accessories or performing repairs that involve altering the firearm. Therefore, unless there are specific exceptions or licensing provisions that allow for limited gunsmithing, the bill essentially bans most gunsmithing activities for private individuals.
Do these absolute idiots realise that no software is needed to make a gun?
Legalize weed and stem the canoes coming from Jamaica.
Legislators gonna legislate. It looks like they’re doing something and is vastly cheaper than actually bothering to tackle the underlying causes of crime or properly funding the criminal justice system.
This will make absolutely no difference whatsoever. Just like the silly 2008 minimum sentence amendment didn’t.
To paraphrase the saying: If a wise man learns from the mistakes of others and only fool learns from his own mistakes – what level of stupid do you have to be to fail to learn from others’ mistakes?
Many CAD programmes driving any sort of CNC machine can be used to design a weapon. The law simply needs to just make it illegal to produce weapons by machining. The 3D printer is a CNC machine by the way. I use CNC machines to make furniture.
There is nothing sensible or simply sensible in the office of the Attorney General or the DPP, completely incompetent and highly paid individuals is the order of the day and has been there for close to 20 years now. When will it end, ask your politicians when they come campaigning if they will clean out both those offices.
Professionals, hobbyists, the schools with STEM students entering Robotics competitions, that all have suites of this software installed for non-weaponry purposes, need to speak up LOUDLY to our governing imbeciles, and have this law changed. Right now, it’s proposed to be a $250,000 fine and 10-35 prison sentence for possessing the software, not the models of theoretical gun parts, just the software that “may” be used for some other purpose. From the mind of the Education Minister.
$1CI = over $150Nepalese Rupee.
$4CI can but a good restaurant meal in Nepal.
Cheap imported slave labor is driving the local Minimum Wage and local unemployment crisis!
Cayman is GONE
Wrong window dude.
It might be good politics, but this is embarrassingly bad as a matter of sentencing policy. Mandatory minimums have never worked anywhere, other than to generate some strikingly disproportionate sentences in difficult cases.
As to deterrent effect, are we really saying that there are a group of people out there with access to guns who are willing to tolerate the risk of a 10 year sentence, but will be deterred by one of 15 years? This is just performative nonsense.
The madness is the prohibition on 3d print software in the year 2024. Let’s arrest all the kids printing off pokemons. Lock ’em up.
So where exactly do Cayman’s hundreds of family-centric 3d print hobbyists surrender themselves? Banning 3d print software is a little like banning Microsoft Word as a word processor, because it “may” be used to type a threatening note. This is an epic policy misfire if there ever was one.
We might as well ban software and email altogether since they can be used to infect other machines with embedded code in documents and aid in financial crime.
I can just imagine a scenario where the police gun lockup is raided like the drugs evidence shipping container was years ago. And did they ever find the culprits or recover the missing drugs?
It seems rather dubious to surrender your firearm to the ones that are best able to put it back onto the streets by the time you return to the island. Besides the police canāt even take care of their own firearms let alone someone elseās. What the hell is the requirement for a firearm owner to have a gun safe for, itās redundant!
Why is the Speaker of the House the only one in Parliament with some sense, and who drafts this kind of silly legislation?
Logistically, $25 million in drugs, probably weighing nearly 500lbs would have involved a parade of unassociated individuals doing and frying quickly with heavy duffels. Yet, nobody in the police station saw anything memorable inside the gated locker area or the police station entrance/exit. The security cameras didn’t record anything…the only people that knew it was there were some MPs and the police c-suite, most of whom are still in charge of law and order in the Cayman Islands. The camera security firm retains a near monopoly on government entity surveillance.
The issue is not guns but society at large. Any stringent law including death penalty may not work against people that have nothing to loose. At least they are guaranteed food, clothing and shelter courtesy of public funds for a long time if they are successfully charged for gun related crimes in Cayman Islands.
fire the DPP’s office entirely, starting with Senior Management. Stop giving them crutches to lean on. What ever happened to competence, stop lowering the bar for under performers and lazy prosecutorial work to justify there high salaries. You could make in 20 years for gun possession, if you can convict what the point.
LTD da Unboozler
Wait, all 3d print software is illegal now? Come on. Are our parliamentary amateurs really outlawing the whole hobby catalogue of useful CAD programs, blender software, and slicer engines without a reasonability test?
Clause 15: The downloading of software with which a firearm “may” be printed is also prohibited. A person who contravenes the provision commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine oftwo hundred and fifty thousand dollars or to imprisonment for a term of thirty-five years, or to both”
According to this “may” standard, there are hundreds of households now with teenager hobbyists printing fidget-spinners, and smartphone cord management clips, that now face $250,000 fines and 35 years in jail.
Why not get more specific to the firearm source CAD files that could be used to attempt to recreate prohibited firearms and parts with malintent?
On materials, someone could attempt to print a demo gun model in PLA,PETG, or ABS, but it won’t necessarily layer to the precision required, or likely survive the first pressure and heat test of a live round trigger pull. Banning certain print jobs of Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) might make more sense, but these do not exist in Cayman.
In reality, without specialised expensive imported equipment, materials, skill, controls on layering speed, plate adhesion, and temperature, fabricating a useful homemade firearm would be a Darwin Award project waiting to happen. The law has to make sense.
How many civilians have licensed weapons at large in the community? Anyone other than the Gun Club membership, and/or farmers, and if so, on what grounds? What is the total number of issued and outstanding?
Those compliant with the law with licensed firearms are never the problem. Nobody here goes through the arduous process of acquiring a firearm license and the subsequent firearm and then uses it for criminal purposes.
We’d like to think not, but then again, sometimes our trusted police force get caught and arrested for playing both sides.
We were talking about civilians. I wouldn’t extend my trust of compliancy toward those who are able to bypass the normal arduous process of acquiring a license and firearm.
That said, I trust many of the RCIPS which I know personally. The rest? Hopefully friends not yet met. I have known a rogue officer or two in the past. I do think they were dealt with successfully, although not always as quickly as we’d have liked.
The people who go through the very exhaustive process of acquiring a gun license and subsequently acquire a firearm have to be phenomenally patient.
It should be just as difficult as it is. However, once those folks have run the gauntlet, you can be well assured that they have been vetted within an inch of their lives. You can also be assured that they’ve had to pay for and install a seriously tough gun safe, which requires inspection by the RCIPS at every evolution of their license renewal.
What more should we put these people through? Public Oath of Fealty?
Thus, my original premise: Those compliant with the law with licensed firearms are never the problem.
I guess, unless you are a Russian-Canadian Crypto SEZ hitman, then you just bring your weapons arsenal in air cargo, say “I didn’t know” and get them given back to you on mistrial.
Again, AGAIN, we were talking about civilian with gun permits and legal firearms who live in the CAYMAN ISLANDS, not people who flit within our borders for various reasons.
I say bring back the gallows for first time gun offenders. We’re turning into Kingston and this ish needs to stop.
Not just for convicted murderers who use guns?
First time caught with an unlicenced gun. Off with his (or her) head. Bust the ol’ neck for them.
I would hate to hear your remedy for traffic congestion.
Nah, just bring back the Garrotte.
We have never had capital punishment, so there is nothing to “bring back”.
Centre mass double tap would be quicker and cheaper?
I see. you think we should punish firearms offenders by shooting them. Got it. I would guess you were inspired by the “turning into Kingston” bit.
Please seek help.