THE State agency that examines and analyses forensic evidence submitted by law enforcers is recommending that specific identifiers be marked on the main components of firearms, such as the barrel, slide, and receiver.

The suggestion was made Tuesday during a meeting of the joint select committee reviewing the Firearms (Prohibition, Restriction and Regulation) Act, 2022.

Assistant Superintendent of Police Miguel Bernard, who heads the Institute of Forensic Science and Legal Medicine (IFSLM) Firearms and Toolmarks Examination Department, pointed to the difficulty scientists have identifying firearms involved in crimes if identifying marks were changed on different components of the weapons.

Section 29 (1) of the Act states that a firearm imported into, exported from, transited or transshipped through, or manufactured in Jamaica, shall bear a mark identifying, in respect of that firearm, the country of manufacture, the name of the manufacturer, the date of manufacture, the serial number, the type, make, model, and the calibre.

According to Bernard, the adjustments would put an ease to the identification process of weapons.

To make his point Bernard said, “For an M16 firearm which has an upper and lower receiver, I know of a particular instance — a case I dealt with personally — where the lower receiver was changed from the upper receiver and the upper receiver has the main parts that has the signature of the weapon, because the serial number or those identifying marks are only marked on the lower receiver.”

“It will pose a challenge to identify if this particular firearm was involved in a shooting. We recommend that all of those marks that I mentioned are marked on all of those main components of the firearm,” he added.

He further explained that firearms with no markings can be very difficult to trace.

“This exists many times, based on removal or they weren’t manufactured with those identifying marks. That is as a result of the advent of modular firearms,” he said.

“With the advent of modular weapons, what you’ll find is that if it is that a licensed firearm is imported in the country and you have a barrel that has no serial number and it is only on the receiver, then any change of those parts we would probably have to look at the ballistic signature to determine if it is the same firearm, and without being prompted in an investigation then that examination might not have been done,” he said.

At the same time, Bernard questioned the practicality of Section 30 (2) which states that the addition or modification of a mark on a firearm (a) shall be done only to correct evident errors in the marking on the firearm; and (b) may only be made by an authorised officer, or a gunsmith at the direction of the authority, and the authority shall forthwith notify the registrar of the addition or modification (as the case may be).

Minister of Legal and Constitutional Affairs Marlene Malahoo Forte clarified that the clause is seeking to ensure that where firearms are required in the course of an investigation, those firearms are marked and recorded.

“So that you don’t hear that the same one recovered from X crime scene turns out to be the same one recovered at Y crime scene or they come into the system and go back out for whatever mysterious reason,” she said.

“The mark that is required to be done and notification is to enable a recording of it for identifying purpose. If it has to be reworded, then rewording can take place, but that is what it is seeking to do — to take care of the problem that we hear of firearms being recovered from certain scenes and then they go back out and the same ones that are recovered are the same ones in circulation,” she added.

The IFSLM was formed in September 2014 after Cabinet approved a merger of the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) and the Legal Medicine Unit (LMU). The FSL had responsibility for conducting forensic examinations and analyses on all physical evidence submitted by the police and other agencies, while the LMU functioned as the Department of Pathology.

The IFSLM is an independent investigative institute under the Ministry of National Security.