The application for a firearm licence is multisectoral, and completion may vary based on the speed at which external agencies engaged by the Firearm Licensing Authority (FLA) operate.

As explained by a senior employee of the FLA, an individual interested in gaining a firearm licence in Jamaica will go through a series of procedures to determine whether he is fit to be granted a licence to carry a gun.

Upon completing the application form available for download on the agency’s website, the individual will have an indefinite wait before finding out whether the bid to be armed was successful.

“When the person completes the application form, he is also required to provide us with two recommendations, and we have a list of persons that it can be from,” the employee stated.

The list, according to an information sheet posted in the website, includes a school principal, a justice of the peace, an attorney-at-law, a resident magistrate, Member of Parliament, medical doctor, Member of the Jamaica Defence Force with the rank of major or higher, minister of Religion who is a marriage officer and a gazetted rank police officer not below the rank of Deputy Superintendent

“They submit those letters and in addition they are also required to submit either their birth certificate or their passport for proof of age. They are are also required to pay for the fingerprint receipt at any tax office and they are required to provide proof of income, maybe a payslip, and proof of employment,” the employee said.

In lieu of proof of employment, a self-employed person or business owner should, according to an instruction sheet posted on the FLA’s website, submit a valid Tax Compliance Certificate and a valid Individual Tax Compliance Certificate “where the applicant is a business that is a company, sole trader or partnership”.

The instruction sheet also outlines that members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force and the Jamaica Defence Force are to submit a letter, enclosed in a sealed envelope from their commanding officer.

When the individual goes to submit the documents, “they’ll come in and make the payment as it relates to the licence fee, which is $12,000”.

Application forms and supporting documents must be submitted directly to the authority — which has offices in Kingston and St James — whether in person or by registered mail.

“Once they submit that to the receptionist or any of the locations then they are given a date to come in to do an interview and to also be fingerprinted,” the FLA employee said.

The date of the interview, as explained by the instruction sheet is usually scheduled for up to 10 working days after receipt of the application by the FLA.

“Once they are given that date, they come in, they are interviewed and fingerprinted and their file is sent to the Investigations department [and] is assigned to an investigator,” she added. This stage of the process is called security clearance and investigation.

“Outside of that, the prints go for security background checks on the individual to be done. This goes to the National Intelligence Bureau; we request information from the National Intelligence Bureau and the Criminal Investigation Branch,” the employee explained. “Once the investigator carries out the field checks and does the investigation, we also have to wait until we get the security information from these external agencies [and] once that is received then the file is submitted to the CEO and then from the CEO to the board so that the board can make a decision.”

Should the application be approved, the individual goes through to the firearm competence clearance phase which, according to the Firearms Act, part five, section 29 subsection four (a), is where the person has to satisfy “the authority of his proficiency in the use and management of the type of firearm in respect of which his application is made”.

Having successfully completed this requirement, a purchasing ordering number is issued, ballistics testing is done, the purchase of the firearm is completed, the licence is granted, and the individual collects the firearm from the dealer.

The Act outlines that a permit, certificate or licence “shall not be, granted to a person whom the Authority has reason, to believe to be of intemperate habits or unsound mind, or to be for any reason unfitted to be entrusted with such a firearm or ammunition.”

“Some of the things that might prevent the person is if the person has intemperate habits, unsound mind; if they are reported to the person as unfit to be entrusted with a firearm; if the person has been convicted in Jamaica or any other country based on different offences, for example, illegal importation and exportation of firearms and ammunition, illegal possession and the use of firearm and ammunition, use of violence for which a sentence of imprisonment of three months or more is imposed, if the holder is convicted of an offence against the Dangerous Drugs Act or any other offence for which a sentence of two years or more is imposed, if the holder has been convicted of an offence involving unlawful discharge of a firearm in a public place and things like that,” the employee highlighted. “If we get reports in terms of when they do the community checks that the person is just generally violent in nature — so there are different scenarios that we consider and the Act is there as a guide.”