Moves begin to make fake guns illegal
(CNS):Government has begun a consultation period to make the Firearms Law stricter and to help the police and crown secure convictions in cases where people have a fake gun in their possession or where any kind of unlicensed firearm has been merely handled by a suspect. The police are also seeking to have the power to stop and search suspects, their cars or homes without a warrant, based on suspicion of possessing a firearm. The public consultation on the redrafting of the Firearms Law began Friday and the community has until 18 Dec.to comment and offer their input on the proposed legislative amendment, which could prove to have severe consequences for anyone who comes into contact with a gun or has a toy firearm in their possession, even if they have no intention of using it to commit a crime.
Despite his own reservations in the past about the tendency for the authorities to want to pass stiffer laws that erode certain freedoms rather than improving evidence gathering, Premier Alden McLaughlin, who is an attorney and now the home affairs minister, has called on the public to take part in this consultation. He said the changes were aimed at addressing what appears to be a recent increase in gun crime.
“We are trying to address recent trends that we have seen come through the system. Public input will help to ensure that the legislation is as effective as possible,” Alden McLaughlin said in a release announcing the public discussion period.
However, the government has attempted to legislate itself out of crime waves before to no avail. The imposition of a mandatory minimum sentence of ten years for possession of an unlicensed firearm appears to have had little effect on the use of guns in crime and the amount of weapons that still seem be in circulation.
Speaking in the Legislative Assembly in 2010, ahead of a number of legislative changes relating to the criminal justice system, McLaughlin pointed to an “emerging trend” in changes to legislation that appeared to be designed to strengthen the hand of the prosecution and give the crown a better chance at conviction.
“There has been a trend by the attorney general over the course of the past few years to continuously and consistently adjust and amend the various pieces of legislation or to create new provisions to constantly strengthen the hand of the prosecution in relation to its conduct,” McLaughlin said in a debate about amendments to the Court of Appeal Law, which provided for the state to appeal cases on wider issues than just on a point of law.
He said at the time that this trend of amending legislation to make it easier for the crown to get a conviction was very worrying to all lawyers and those who cared about civil liberties because loading the legal system in favour of the state could undermine Cayman’s system of justice and democracy.
Nevertheless, he is now backing the amendments to the law, which will see the possession of fake, modified or even real looking toy guns become illegal and make a mere passing touch of a firearm a crime, as well as giving police more powers of search without a warrant.
Under the current legislation having an imitation gun is not a crime unless the police can show that the person who has it intended to use it to commit an offence such as a robbery. As a result, in order to lay charges against those that have imitation weapons in their possession the police must be able to also demonstrate that the suspects were planning to use it in a crime. The proposed legislation removes that requirement and makes the possession of anything that looks like a real gun or that has been modified to operate like a firearm illegal and could result in ten years jail time even if no other crime has been committed.
In the wake of a number of failed cases brought by the crown where suspects have been linked to weapons through DNA but where there has been not enough evidence to secure a conviction of possession of an unlicensed firearm, the authorities are seeking to improve the crown’s chance at conviction by introducing the crime of handling. This will remove the requirement for the prosecution to prove in court that a suspect was in possession of the gun and care and control of the weapon in question.
With the amendment the prosecution would just have to prove that they had touched it. Upon conviction, if the authorities succeed in creating this new crime, a person could go to jail for up to ten years.
The draft bill also lays out far greater powers of detention and search for police and customs officers. The legislation proposes that if any law enforcement official has a reasonable cause to believe that a firearm or bullet-proof vest may be concealed, they can search the person, their bag, car or home without first securing a warrant.
A copy of the proposed law is posted below and it is also available on the government website and on the courts' website.
Anyone wishing to comment on the law should send their contribution to Tesia Scott tesia.scott@gov.ky, or c/o the Attorney General’s Chambers, Fifth Floor,Government Administration Building no later than 18 December 2013.
Vote in the CNS Polls:
Should possession of a fake gun be illegal without proof of intent to commit a crime?
Should handling a gun be a criminal offence without proof of intent to commit a crime?
Category: Crime
Well with the recent video of a guy making a gun out of everyday items found in airport shops. I think we are in for a tedious battle of good vs evil.
As a US resident and owner of a gun manufacturing company I have a unique view. I have lived in counties where guns are illegal and places where private ownership of machine guns are legal. In areas with stringent gun control I have seen a higher rate of gun crime, gangs and drugs. In places where I have seen high gun ownership I have seen less crime and gang related violence.
Oddly enough in the areas with higher gun ownership there was also a higher level of community involvement and religion. This trait seems to go hand in hand in the US. In areas with higher crime their is a lack of parenting, lack of personal responsibility and morals.
Just ask yourself a question, why is it that cocaine, burglary, and murder happens even though it’s illegal? It’s do to the content of one’s heart and the lack of the community being involved.
You can ban any item but il intended individuals will always find a way to commit heinous acts regardless of any laws man passes
As for your last sentence, may be bad people wll still do bad things, but they will be able to do it much easier with guns if there are more guns available, and there will be a much higher rate of gun deaths in the population by reason of it. So you can have your unique viewpoint, but please keep the application to your country with its own unique second amendment and all the deaths and misery it has brought.
First of all, if you read my first sentence you would notice I said I am a resident. Not a citizen hence the reason I stay abreast of the news back in Cayman.
Secondly, i never said they should not be regulated, I simply stated a fact.
I would challenge you on your last statement. In the city I live in right now, we have a population of 95,000 people witih over 45,000 registered firearms. Over the last 20 years there has been 7 murders. That equals an effective rate of 1 murder every 3 years. Last time I was home the rate was slightly higher. If we break that down further and look at violent crime the rate in the city i live in is 480% lower for the last 10 years than just the current year in GT.
While this is just my oppinion, Oxford University, Harvard and Westminister University came to the same conclusion.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/08/27/Harvard-Study-Shows-No-Correlation-Between-Strict-Gun-Control-And-Less-Crime-Violence
I stand by my belief that community involvement, god and good morales prevent crime. Not any law written in a book.
Morals and community involvement is all one needs. Your god or any other should never enter the equation. And I hope the laws written in “the good book” are included in your last sentence of exclusion as well.
Heston,
I do not consider the good book simply a book. It should be used as an owners manual on how we should live our lives and treat others. If we followed the teachings and lived by the good book we wouldn’t have all of these problems world wide.
Should we follow the old good book or the new good book? If it’s the former, then get ready for stonings, incest, eye for an eye revenge and other crazy shit. If any person needs a manual to feel and know how to respect their fellow humans, then something is wrong with them in the first place. It’s a natural instinct, you either have empathy and morals etc, or you don’t. Any book with instructions on how to be good and do good as best you can, is a sham in my opinion. Somethings are natural, one cannot teach to be naturally caring and good, it comes from ‘the heart’ and one’s brain to be…well, just good. We’ll never agree on this, I see that, but thankfully you or anyone else here, for now at least, cannot force this good book theory or any Christian beliefs upon us/me. Start at home with kindness and take it from there I say. Unfortunately, it’s easier to not care and be bad. This also doesn’t need any manuals, for society and greed, is the great creator.
Heston,
I should have been a tad clearer in my response and didn’t even equate your good book to the one I was referring too. There was a book written in the late 90s called the good book. It was written by a religious scholar that analyzed the 4 largest religions. In this book a major focus was on how people developed their belief systems.
I was not a religious tool on any front but an enlightening read on how society forms the standards between right and wrong. Regardless of religion it is a fascinating read
We wantn Police that are not biased to our Native people, but instead defends their own nationality over we Caymanians. I am talking from experience and not a gun problem either but a money dispute. It made me realize that when our boys complain that they always get the worst of a situation that it is true and that is why they wont talk. Its time to get more Cayman and Bajan Police.
Why Bajan? Why not just Caymanian? We don't need anymore third worlsd country police. We need police if they have to be outsiders from places with high standards of living which equals less corruption.
So what are all the toy stores going ot do? no more cowboys and indians? Come on Mr. B… If you cant get a conviction surely this is the fualy of the interviewing officers and the egal dept, not the person holding the toy gun!!!! OH by the way you may want to getone of those warrants from those highly trained JP's of yours and search all homes with kids, plenty guns there.
Has anyone ever been shot with a fluorescent orange gun?
I have and it took ages to dry off…..
How about dealing with the real problem, not the symptoms?
More utter and blatant mornic idiocy on parade.
Isn't it already illigal to comit a crime using a fake gun??? So now we are going to pass laws to arrest 9 year old with water pistols and cap guns? So if a kid left their fake guns un theback of the car. the father should be tried for illegal FIREARMS??
I mean I'm ALL for stopping gun crime, but this is plain stupidity stemming from absolute incompetence.
Has anyone else noticed that every time the police make these kind of announcements, the criminals seem to go on a spree. A sort of "IN YOUR FACE" kind of dare!
so wait.. we have a "highly" decorated police commisioner from the UK, with a salary that most commissioners dream about getting, to police 5 times the amount of people in the worst locations. An attorney general office whose salaries are probably the best in the carribean and now we want to make toy guns illigal because they are not getting convictions?
We must have the smartest non-educated criminals in the world.
It's funny how we try to get these international people in from the uk to impliment policies that mimic the UK system, yet these professionals have trouble doing what they are paid for. I've yet to hear the UK making toy guns illigal. Actually, buying an air rifle or a RIF is the easiest thing to do in the UK once you are of age.
I think, inept policing and poor legal prosecuters are the problem here, not toy guns. lol
then again, what do I know.lol
In more recent news, also to become illegal:
Glad I’m 7“ plus. And that’s just girth!
Are you a leprachaun?
The Premier is an attorney so he knows the law, please give the man credit for his work, as I am sure that he will not give us some law what will prove useless. After all folks he was the LA member that brought forth the motion of the Human Rights legislation for Cayman now we are all the better for it. I would also ask the Premier to enact a law for natural rights as well. People do not dispair the Premier is a lawyer so he has thought this law thru and it will be a good one just as the "Bill of Rights" is.
LAWYER: A professional advocate hired to bend the law on behalf of a paying client; for this reason considered the most suitable background for entry into politics.
— The Cynic’s Dictionary
Better ban 3D printers while we are at it. BTW, I have ownde guns and have hunted, but strongly believe in gun control.
Great idea, search these a holes every month till they get the message, we all know who they are, if I know them all then the police must know them, we'll……. You would think,
Where is the Human Rights Committee? A murderer has rights by not getting life in prison, yet law abiding citizens could be terrorized by the RCIPS if they think you have a gun?
So the pirates week replica and my son's toy gun now illegal? Are you going to waste your time prosecuting 7 year olds or fathers who want to raise their boys like men?
Sorry but no Barbie dolls for my sons so I am already packing me and my boys for a lengthy term in northward!
This move is a stupid one. Kicking my self for voting PPM straight.
It is very difficult to tell the difference between an imitation firearm and a real one sometimes. Some of you will understand if you are unlucky enough to have one pointed in your face. Why do you think that allowing your boys to play with imitatiion fire arms will assist them in becoming men? No wonder the world is so screwed up!! Sounds like a recipe for raising a punk!!
It is not difficult. The problem is, we're in a neo-British culture that doesn't educate their children in firearm safety. No, we demonizeeveryone who might want to pass on the lessons of their elders; guns are bad m'kay…….. they gets people kilt. What a crock of bovine excrement. If the government and RCIP can't protect us, we should be allowed the right to protect ourselves.
No search warrant needed ?
Ok, so there is this politician that hates your guts and suddenly the police shows up at your door. They don't find anything, they won't tell you why they are there, but your reputation in the neighbourhood is destroyed, because you are now a criminal.
Changing a law does not change the people. It just creates a new criminal.
So let me get this straight, we want to legalized marajuiana but we can't have toy guns? My son will never be able to play cowboy and indians?
What needs to be done is Blaine's and his top brass need to police and police as if they really have this country at heart. No matter how many laws you put on the books, the criminals will brake the law whilst the good suffers.
I guess where this is now heading is that all boys will just have to settle to play with Barbie dolls. Such a waste of time! Criminals breaks laws so why put another law as crazy as this one one the books?
Let me give Alden and crew some quotes to ponder:
“You see, that's the whole point of being in government. If you don't like something you simply make up a law that makes it illegal.” ― Richard Curtis
“The kind of man who demands that government enforce his ideas is always the kind whose ideas are idiotic.” ― H.L. Mencken
“The more laws and order are made prominent, the more thieves and robbers there will be.” ― Lao Tzu
To our overlords, please, please use your heads. Start a review and clear out the poorly performing, high and mighty A.G., police officers and their chiefs. This law, if it comes to fruition, won't make but a small, easily circumvented inconvenience for the criminals, but a bear to lawful citizens, without really making any difference in reducing gun or other crime.
It seems, to me at least, the enforcers are already too idiotic at doing their jobs properly and professionally, now you want them to have unfettered access without a judge issued warrant?! I wonder what that would lead to…hmmm.
Forget the can, buckets of worms will be opened instead. I still have hope that our judges will prevail where stupid laws and enforcement fail…do to, yes, you got it, stupidity on part of police officers, over zealous prosecutors and their masters. I'd like to hear from any jurisprudent men and women discussing this proposed law amendment. Should be interesting.
Crime pays, not only for the criminals, but so to the lawmakers and enforcers, otherwise no job for them. Now you know the why lawyers get paid so much, protecting us from them. At least that's how it feels in these times.
No more "cowboys and indians" just cowboy politicians turning the screws locking us all down into a police state. Why should the rights of average law abiding citizens be deminished to aid a failed attempt to police illegal real firearms?
More band-aid redundant legislation.
How or what can be done that pleases the naysayers? The shoes is always on the wrong foot squeezing most of us.
A sensible move. A robbery involving the brandishing of a fake gun is as terrfying as one with a real gun if you don't know it is a fake.
And if not a toy/fake gun, a hammer, piece of 2×4, one of those sporks, etc. You get my point? This proposal is nothing but a bandaid, as one poster mentioned.
What has that got to do with the with the police being given the power to search somone on simple suspsicion without probable cause, or your having to prove to a jury that you had no knowledge of a weapon being in a car/house/ container/ anything owned by you, even if used by someone else?
Dear god, its people like you that equate the consequences of a crime with the assumption of guilt that make anyone with a brain cell despair for the concept that the public is a watchdog over the authorities. You just dont get it, do you? Accuse someone of a sufficintly heinous crime, and the usual checks and balnces on the police having to have reasonable suspcion before invading your privacy, or proof before you get convicted, evaporate? By your view, all I have to do is accuse YOU of a serious crime, then I can search your house without a warrant, put you in jail fo 20 days whilst i then look for evidence, and even if I cannot find any, make YOU prove you are innocent.
Nice people like you who believe the police only arrest people who are guilty are in some ways admirable, but not exactly a bulwark against facisim. Lets kick all the progress since Magna Carta into touch, because after all, we can really trust the authorities to get it right. Hey, why even bother with a court. If the police say they did it, it must be right!
That's true but the law already makes that a crime, what they are intending is to make having a fake gun, without intent to do anything wrong with it, a crime. That fake gun could be a childs plastic toy, from what I can read, and that is why the law was written in that way – to allow for toys not being accidentally included in the legislation.
“Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws." ~ Plato
'In the wake of a number of failed cases brought by the crown where suspects have been linked to weapons through DNA but where there has been not enough evidence to secure a conviction of possession of an unlicensed firearm, the authorities are seeking to improve the crown’s chance at conviction by introducing the crime of handling. This will remove the requirement for the prosecution to prove in court that a suspect was in possession of the gun and care and control of the weapon in question.'
To me, that says it all.
Laws and lawmakers, gotta love 'em. Yea, let's make this and that illegal, because we suck at our job and can't convict or get a convection based on X evidence. Stupid. So…let's make a law against something to make it easier for the prosecution to win, no matter how irrational. Crime is Business, they got to keep their jobs performing or they're outta here! Water pistols, you're next!
If Alden and others believe this will make any bit of a difference, I'll take some of that la-la land tea they're drinking.
Many of these proposed laws are fast becoming like what happen in Jamaica in the 1970s they too banned toy guns even the plastic guns were illegal at one point and so were certain types of fireworks (fire cracker). With do many restrictions we can see where it will ultimately end up. Cayman is now in the stage of where Jamaica was in the mid to late 70s. Instead of our leaders working to steer it away from that course they seem to be charting it. People that are smart should now know what to do.
I cant wait to see the field day attorneys will have with this one. "My client was in possession of a super soaker at the time of his arrest"
The Premier is speaking words of wisdom in regards to allowing the State to not have to adhere to an accepted level of work product. These actions are closely tipping the presumably legal acceptance of innocence scale towards an accused having to be labeled guilty opposed to the crown providing a case of substance to prove beyond a reasonable doubt the guilt of a person to commit a crime. It will only be a matter of time to where you will be charged with a crime and have to prove innocence on a prosecutions case that provides nothing more than accusation without substance. In many cases this is happening already but the law does not provide for such convictions on poor law work of the Police and Prosecution arm of our Justice system. Therefore this proposal should be vacated and go back to the drawing board.
And the noose of the Police state continues getting tighter around our necks, I swear we have ellected the biggest bunch of sheep in the history of this country, they will follow any stupid idea put across by or rats in power.
Please don't make Cayman look any stupider tell whichever idoit suggested this to go and find a better idea, where the hell is the HRC in representing us with our rights.
If the AG office can't secure convictions obviusly the defence teams are buch better, in that case get better prosecutors and stop prosecuting us as a country and destroying our rights, to make some incompetent AG office lawyers job easy.
We need the rights to be allowed to bare arms as citizens, thats what we need, might I suggest you all right some laws to make that easier for us.
Sobecause the RCIP is incompetent in doing their jobs, people must now be subject to unfair practices of getting their homes search if someone from the rcip believes that they might have a fire arm?
My suggestion to any political figure trying to push this forward. Make sure the RCIP house is clean before allowing some unethical "service" try and point the fingers at anyone they feel is a criminal. Instead of distroying someones house, they should learn the law and learn how to hold a proper crime scene. Im sorry but the RCIP is lacking in so many more areas and now people must suffer for their own stupidy. Foolishness.
It would be a different case if criminals were getting off because they had great defense attorneys and the RCIP was doing everything they could. Instead all these criminals and attorneys have to do, is go to trial, sit and keep quiet and watch the disaster of the RCIP and attorney general office unravel themselves with poor evidence handling, unethical behaviour and poor legal skills .SMH
I hope Govt's Customs isn't planning on collecting revenue from the importation of TOY GUNS and then arresting &/ or issuing a fine to people for purchasing them as they have with the window tint and decorative lights used on vehicles. And since were on the topic, of implementing "new" laws, police vehicles need to have all TINT removed from their unmarked cars as well, why are the police hiding behind illegal tint, all of the police vehicles with tint that I have seen sure as hell isn't 35% (which is the percentage deemed to be legal) the law is the LAW.
Damn right!
I always knew that one day Cayman would become AUTOCRATIC!
Read the law. So the offence is now not the possession of the firearm or bullet proof vest, but possession of anything anything containing a firearm or bullet proof vest. If I can prove that you owned or controlled a vessel, car, shipping container or even a building which contained a firearm, you are now liable to 10 years in prison, even if I cannot prove that you knew the firearm was there.
Think about what that means. If you are the pilot of a plane in which a passenger smuggles in a gun, you are a criminal. If you are a manager of a shipping company that offers consolidation , and one of your customers gives you a box to ship to Cayman that, guess what, has a firerm hidden in it, you are a criminal. Hey, if you are the captain of the ship that transported the container, you are guilty too. If you are a landlord that owns a rental property and your tenant has a firearm in it, you are a criminal. The burden of proof is on you to show beyond any reasonable doubt – the criminal standard, not a balance of probability – that you did not know, and in the meantime the police can keep you in jail for up to 20 days without even charging you.
Is this what our police are reduced to? We cannot do basic policing in which we can prove criminal intent, so we have to change the law to place the burden of proof on the suspect, or anyone even in the vicinity of a crime?
No amount of legal tinkering can disguise the fact that the RCIP and Legal Department are simply incompetent and unable to conduct proper investigations and trials.
The results speak for themselves.
We need top to bottom reviews of leadership and staffing. Incompetents must be let go from the very top down and pay scales adjusted to ensure that new hires are up to the task.
Outlawing toys is hardly the magic bullet for what we are facing,
What about machettes? We've recently heard of how these are being used so why not be specific with this 'weapon'.
Did the anti-gang legislation in 2005 help decrease crime? Not at the rate of increase in crime.
We need to get to the source of supply of guns, stop criminalising certain behaviour and thinking laws to increase penalty for gun possession or now 'fake guns' is a deterrent will not help, history is showing otherwise.
Here we go again. Hon. Alden McLaughlin and Sam Bulgin manged to get the laws changed in 2005 to have a mandatory minimum sentence…….DID it work sirs? When are we going to address the real issues.
I am not an advocate for legalising marijuana but my issue is with the sentencing and unfair profiling in this country and lack of effective investigators.Will they also seek to dicriminalise possession of ganja for personal use?
That way our great RCIPS can focus on drug dealers, gangs and not simply putting same people in prison for small amounts of this drug? If a person is caught with small amounts that doesn't always mean they're gang members, own guns or hardened criminals. Our crime rate will continue to increase if we keep sending certain people to jail to BECOME criminals.
If it looks like a real gun???
So is the Pirates Week office and toy shops going to stop selling old time toy pistols? Dear God, we had all best turn our pirates costume in to the RCIP before out doors are kicked in.
I suppose nail guns, screwdrivers and kitchen knives can't be used to kill people or should we make them illegal too?
Give a criminal an fruit basket and he will find a way to kill you with it.
Its not the gun, its the people behind the gun and the illegal gun trade. Its the lack of border protection on this island…now there is an idea.
The problem is not the existing law, which is far tougher than many countries. Its the complete incompetence of the police and the prosecuting authorities to enforce it. Unfortunately changing the law will not change that basic fact, but it will of course completely erode our civil liberties. What next – its going to be a criminal offence if the police simply believe you have a gun? Thye may be better off recruiting a proper forensics team and prosecuting counsel.
You Madame/Sir have hit the nail right on the head.
This is no more than another knee jerk reaction to placate the unthinking masses who are hollering for the Politicians to solve the criminal problem. Little have the great unwashed plebs realized the solution lies with themselves, the citizenery. Simple….. too simple I guess. Or maybe it would take some courage and backbone.
BTW can't use the comment box unless I click on the reply button to someone's comment. CNS may want to look into it.
CNS: If anyone has this or other problems commenting, could you please go to the Forum topic Problems commenting on CNS.