SECURITY Minister Horace Chang has suggested that consideration be given to allowing licensed firearm holders to train others in the use of firearms, particularly for sport shooting, in light of the low number of licensed firearm trainers in the island.

The suggestion came at Thursday’s virtual meeting of the joint select committee which is reviewing the Firearms Prohibition (Restriction and Regulation) Act of 2022.

Discussions on the matter arose following a question raised by Government Senator Charles Sinclair as to whether it should be legal for an unlicensed person to be allowed to handle a firearm on a Firearm Licensing Authority (FLA)-approved range in order to establish competence or for training to determine whether he or she wants to make an application for a gun licence.

Dr Chang noted that the main challenge is in the area of sport target practice, for which there are not many licensed trainers, which leads to family members or friends who are licensed training these people. “You don’t want to criminalise that activity,” Chang cautioned.

He said since the trainers’ licence is specific to training people within the context of a formal business, the FLA could consider creating permits to allow firearm holders to train people without a trainer’s licence. He stressed that the gap is specific to sport shooting. “Very few carry shotguns; they think it’s a waste of time,” the minister remarked.

Chief technical director in the national security ministry, Rohan Richards, warned against giving this kind of latitude as any handling of a firearm without permit from the FLA would be a breach of the firearms law.”I am very uneasy with that kind of approach,” Richards said, pointing out that licensed drivers, for example, are not authorised to teach other persons without a learner’s permit to teach them to drive.”We [would be] opening the door to persons who may have nefarious intent to go and practise and get better at target shooting. This is something that we ought to think a little more carefully about. I would not, from a technical perspective, want us to have that approach where we give this free for all for anybody to start to train persons to do target practising without the requisite licence or permit from the authority. We are running down a very slippery slope,” he stressed, pointing out that the FLA usually makes its own assessment to determine if applicants are fit and proper to handle a weapon.

St Catherine South Member of Parliament Fitz Jackson said he supported the suggestion. “If someone is a legal, licensed firearm holder [and] his spouse wants to consider having a firearm, and before going through the process to get one, making the applications, they want to be able to expose themselves to the firearm and its use in a controlled environment, such as on a licensed range with a licensed trainer. Why would we want to prohibit that?”

— Alphea Sumner