Licensed gun holders fire back at FLA

Hundreds of authorized firearm holders temporarily living in foreign jurisdictions must travel to Jamaica every year to renew their firearm license with the gun licensing authority.

Licensing renewal fee is currently $12,000 (less than US$100), and must be paid in-person by the owner even if the firearm is left in care of the FLA.
It’s a ridiculous and out-dated policy in light of existing technology, firearm holders told Old Harbour News in recent interviews.

Their displeasure with the FLA’s policy on the renewal process come in the wake of recent statement by the state agency advising of its intention to destroy nonrenewal firearms stored at its facility for more than five years.

Two of the individuals we interviewed are former police officers of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) with over 40 years of combined service. Both are living abroad less than three years now and left their personal weapons in care of the FLA because it is the “safest and best thing to do” in their opinion. All interviewees requested anonymity to avoid any backlash from the FLA. 

But in an advisory to firearm licensees dated April 26, 2021, the FLA stated: “This project is in keeping with Section 45 (5) (b) of the Firearms Act which provides that firearms which have been stored at the FLA beyond 12 months without payment of the prescribed fees, will be forfeited to the Crown (Government of Jamaica). Therefore, all such firearms having been forfeited will be earmarked for destruction.”

The FLA’s decree takes effect June 1, 2021.

In its advisory the FLA did not say how much firearms it has in its care that has not been renewed over the last half a decade, neither did it indicate of plans to modernize its website to facilitate online payment. The only online process they are currently able to facilitate is for new applicants to track their status online, which has been in effect since January 1, 2019.

In a response to Old Harbour News, the national security agency said: “The FLA is not yet able to facilitate online payments for renewal. The holder will have visit the FLA at a feasible time to complete the renewal process. A late fee may be applicable if the holder has been late for three months and over, and the matter will have to be brought to the board for approval to retain.”
By its own admission and one may argue inaction as well, the FLA seems transfixed in doing business in the past when the world is now on the cusp of the Fourth Industrial Revolution – dubbed The Internet of Things whereby the renewal of critical documents like your passport and driver’s licence are done electronically and virtually within seconds or a few minutes.

This point is laid bare knowing that among the FLA’s remit, according to its own corporate profile, is to “streamline and standardize the granting, renewal, and revocation of firearm licences and all the attendant processes relating to the use of firearms in Jamaica”. 

Many other licensed firearm holders, the Jamaican expatriates told Old Harbour News, have been hamstrung by the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic which has denied them the opportunity to travel to Jamaica, countries closed their borders to stymie the spread of the deadly respiratory virus.

“When you think about airfare, not to say we deserve special privilege, but when you think about airfare every year in order to keep that weapon, you have to pay maybe five, six, seven hundred US dollars just to come and pay $15,000… but if we’re moving with technology I think that it is something that they can look into… it is not something that is hard that it cannot be done,” said one of the former cops who served the JCF for more than a decade.

The other cop, a retired law enforcer who contributed more than 25 years fighting crime in his native country, said it’s baffling why the FLA is yet to institute a renewal process online, knowing that the authority has in its possession all relevant information on the owner as well as the weapon being stored.

“Same way how you have online banking, the FLA could do the same thing,” noted the JCF retiree who added “if you are a licensed firearm holder and it can be proven that you are still alive, they should not take your weapon and talk about disposing of it after five years even if you have not renewed it during that time because things can happen. You can fall ill; we have covid affecting the whole world; there is nothing firearm holders who are overseas can do in such situation.”

“This is the age where you carry out transaction online,” another holder told Old Harbour News. “I don’t know why they haven’t done that. FLA needs to rethink how they do business.”

A local security expert added: “I don’t see that making any sense. I think its foolishness by all stretch of the imagination.”