Shane Dalling is now concerned for his safety, what with the spotlight having been placed further on him by Jamaica’s Opposition party, in the ongoing controversy surrounding the Firearm Licensing Authority of which he is chief executive officer.

Dalling last week blew the whistle on irregularities that have occurred at the State agency for the greater part of the last five years, which unleashed a firestorm of claims and counter accusations by others, among them former deputy chairman of the FLA Dennis Meadows, who, like Dalling, has represented the governing Jamaica Labour Party in national elections.

But by late Thursday, when the verbal sores on the matter began to fester, in stepped the People’s National Party (PNP) with a call for Dalling to step aside in a bid to what the party’s spokesman on national security Peter Bunting said was to clean up the organisation. He cited Dalling for “poor performance” in the management of the organisation.

Bunting is a former minister of national security with direct policy responsibility for the FLA. He served in that capacity from January 2012 to February 2016.

Now, Dalling, an attorney-at-law by training, is fearful that, with the personal spotlight shining in his direction, he has become a clear target for potential physical attacks.

“Many persons have called to express their concern based on the sheer gravity of it,” Dalling said in an interview last week cut short by a move to visit the doctor as he expressed that he was not feeling well.

“I am now very concerned given that the People’s National Party has asked for my resignation. And they have not stated anything that I have personally done, apart from making the pronouncement that I have made. They have not sought to ask for verification of it; they have not asked for the Parliament to see the documentation to support it, so I am being targeted now by the very nature of that call.

“It’s the first attempt to malign me in the scheme of things… my resignation….no board member’s resignation? And remember that the CEO does not sign one single application for gun licences; doesn’t approve any, but yet he is the only one being called upon to resign, which suggests that he is the wrongdoer,” Dalling argued.

The CEO said that some of those who had not travelled the straight path could now be energised to focus on him and his family.

“And, therefore, persons who are affected by their licences being revoked for their criminal antecedents may very well see me as the target, because I am not being supported in my action as a public servant, in coming forward to speak about what is happening, and being made the target of what I call punishment by requesting that I be fired.

“That’s the first target that one could state in the public domain when I am singled out. Even if I am fired, it would not stop the board of the FLA from granting licences tomorrow morning. So what is this all about”? Dalling asked.

“Will you improve your personal security?” was the next question put to Dalling by the Sunday Observer.

“That’s correct. And that is where my greatest fear, or concern, has now come in,” he responded.