GUN OWNERS are calling on the Prime Minister to define assault weapons as they fear a change in law will strip them of their weapons.
On April 18, Dr Rowley announced that one of the decisions taken after a Caricom anti-crime symposium was the banning of assault weapons for civilians. Since then, gun enthusiasts have been asking one question, what does he mean?
Legislatively there is no definition for the term. The Firearms Act prohibits automatic weapons. The only definition on record came from Finance Minister Colm Imbert in November last year during his reading of the budget in 2022.
Imbert said then: "We need to tighten up the Firearms Act to properly define what exactly is an assault weapon.'
He added that after doing his own research, he found a definition from the US which defined an assault weapon as "a semi-automatic weapon that can discharge a significant number of rounds (of ammunition) in a short period of time."
At the closing of the symposium Rowley said: 'We do not require those weapons within our society in a commonplace way because of the outcome of the presence in the society. We can continue to provide protection with a small number of handguns in the population.'
Sunday Newsday spoke with gun dealer Dirk Barnes, president of the Civilian Firearms Users' Licence Association Robert Vincent Charles and gun range director and attorney Nyree Alfonso on the proposal which will affect firearm users' licence (FUL) holders.
Barnes said there are firearms in the hands of civilians that resemble assault rifles and perhaps those were the type of weapons the Prime Minister was referring to, but he said those weapons are not assault weapons.
He said since the comment was made on April 18 the definition of an assault weapon has not been given.
An assault rifle, he said, is a 'shoulder mounted weapon that has a detachable magazine that has a certain number of rounds and this weapon is capable of firing automatic mode with a predefined rate of fire.'
"If the Prime Minister continues with his current trajectory, and he touches any firearm that somebody lawfully bought through the systems and the laws of TT, not only would it not do anything to the crime rates, but it will also continue to spiral, he will now bring so much costly litigation that TT will pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages to people wrongfully affected."
He said the proposed ban will not affect gun dealers as they only act as brokers when the State seeks to purchase assault weapons for law enforcement and the military.
Alfonso, who said she was not going to interpret what Rowley said, questioned if it was the calibre of ammunition and size of the gun that was concerning the Prime Minister.
'Assuming you feel that some guns which look long but are nine-millimetre or other calibres and qualify as semi-automatic and you wish to take those out as civilian hands, of course there will be people who will tie you up in court until hell freezes over and waste taxpayers' money.'
She added: 'If the legislatio
