The Nassau Guardian
Govt withdraws two bills from Senate
The government has decided to further review amendments to the Firearms Act and the Penal Code to bring more clarity to them, Attorney General Allyson Maynard-Gibson said yesterday.
The amendment bills were before the Senate last week and were passed in the House of Assembly two weeks ago.
The decision to review the bills came about after Opposition Senators Carl Bethel and John Bostwick raised technical issues regarding the wording of certain clauses and the need for more clarity, Maynard-Gibson said.
The Senate adjourned sine die on Thursday.
“Mr. Bethel and I discussed several matters,” the attorney general said.
“He is a former attorney general. Obviously when he raises his points of drafting I listen to him.
“I feel that on these criminal matters, in particular [with] crime being of concern in our country, that as a former attorney general he is someone worthy of being listened to.
“I have always found him to be helpful and it is in that spirit that we looked at certain drafting.
“There was nothing fundamental in the matters that were discussed.”
Among the opposition’s main concerns are the wording of the bill to amend the Penal Code regarding gang association; the “excessive” penalties for unlawful gang members, and the need to expand the list of weapons included in the bill to amend the Firearms Act.
Bethel, who was contacted for comment, said, “One of the questions raised was this idea of association, and if you happen to be someone who frequents an area where a gang is, is that a sufficient association?” he asked.
“If you live in the house where two members of a gang live, is that association, because then you could arrest the cousin, the mother or the granny and charge them with being associated with gang members”.
According to the bill, anyone who is convicted of being in an unlawful gang or participates in or contributes to the activities of an unlawful gang would be liable to a fine of $500,000, and imprisonment for 20 years, subject to a minimum term of 15 years.
“At the end of the day anyone who is going to go through the time and effort of legislation wants to get it right,” Bethel said.
“When they are shown that there are sufficiently strong reasons why the bill should not be passed in its form then a responsible government has a duty to review those concerns and address them, usually by correcting the amendments.”
Amendments to the Firearms Act would increase the range of sentencing for people found in possession of illegal firearms, and create a new offense of possession of a prohibited high-powered firearm, which carries a sentence of 25 years to life upon conviction.
The bill describes a high-powered firearm as “any rifle designed or chambered to discharge any rifle cartridge of a .22 caliber or greater with a muzzle energy of 900 feet/pounds higher”.
As it relates to the bill to amend the Firearms Act, Maynard-Gibson said the necessary amendments that she expects to be made are more grammatical.
“And that brings clarity in the sense that it has to make sense; you can’t have singular and plural mixed up in the same sentence,” she said.
Asked when the bills could be amended, Maynard-Gibson said, “I am not sure, but I would imagine it would be early in the New Year”.
No comments:
Post a Comment