Minister of State in the Ministry of National Security, the Hon. Juliet Cuthbert-Flynn says the Government continues to prioritise initiatives to strengthen firearm regulation.
She emphasised this while delivering remarks at the launch of the Firearms Marking Workshop held at the Institute of Forensic Science and Legal Medicine in Kingston earlier today (April 16).
“The Government through the Ministry of National Security, continues to prioritise these initiatives to strengthen firearm regulation, through the effective development of policy and legislative programmes, which are implemented at the operational levels,” Minister Cuthbert-Flynn stated.
She further added that the “Government remains committed to fulfilling its national, regional and international obligations, by providing adequate resources for firearms training and capacity improvement initiatives.”
This is essential to assisting law enforcement and border security personnel with the skillsets and adaptability required to enhance their response capabilities to evolving security threats.
The illicit trafficking and proliferation of firearms continue to be a matter of national concern, which has demanded a comprehensive response from the Government and involves a mixture of legislative, policy and operational improvements.
The training through the Firearms Marking Workshop is geared towards sensitising ballistics experts and law enforcement officers in firearm marking activities in keeping with the requirements of the new Firearms (Prohibition, Restriction and Regulation) Act, 2022.
Minister Cuthbert-Flynn emphasised that this initiative “is such a critical step towards tackling the significant challenge of illicit proliferation of firearms that confronts us, as this will provide officers with the right tools, to effectively track the firearms that enter Jamaica”.
The State Minister further highlighted that “the effective marking and tracing of firearms will be vital to our efforts to combat transnational organised crime, as we will be better able to trace the illegal firearms used in criminal activities back to their source of origin”.
The workshop, which is being held from April 16-18, 2024 is funded by the Government of the United States of America coordinated by the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNLiREC).
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