There needs to be a crackdown on gun smuggling from the United States (US) to the Caribbean, including The Bahamas, Prime Minister Philip Davis said yesterday, adding that he has brought the issue up with high-ranking US officials.

Davis said more than 90 percent of guns confiscated and used as murder weapons in The Bahamas can be traced to American manufacturers and gun shops.

“We are saying to the Americans that they need to do more,” said Davis on the sidelines of the Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police’s 36th Annual General Meeting and Conference at Baha Mar.

“We don’t want to get involved in their domestic issue about the right to bear arms. We are concerned that purchasers of guns are not just buying [them] to bear [but] rather to export.

“There needs to [be] an intervention and where the evidence appears to them that a person is not buying it and exercising their right to bear it, but buying it with the 

purpose of trafficking, some legislative intervention needs to be engaged to make those persons responsible and accountable for the arms they purchase.

“I’ve spoken to a number of high-ranking US authorities from Washington on this.”

Davis said he spoke on behalf of the region during his conversations with the US officials. He said those officials promised to intervene to see how the concerns can be addressed.

Davis said he plans to continue to agitate for the US government to act on the issue.

“One step they have taken is to post an ATF – alcohol, tobacco and firearm – individual to the embassy,” he said. “That’s a step in the right direction.”

Davis said the Americans also appointed another individual from the Department of Homeland Security to assist The Bahamas in identifying and tracing firearms and finding those responsible for the illicit trade. 

He said some of the gun smugglers are Americans with Bahamian roots.

“One Bahamian, for example, with American status, being able to buy 40 weapons in two or three gun shops over the period of one month and within 10 days, one of those weapons has been found to be used here in The Bahamas,” he said.

“It is only after the efforts of our police officers were we able to determine that one person bought those 40 guns. Where are the rest of those guns? Are they here or are they in Trinidad or elsewhere?”

Homicide numbers remain a major worry in The Bahamas.

Twenty-two murders were recorded in March alone, which police said was one of the bloodiest months in Bahamian history.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Clayton Fernander in March said police are targeting gun traffickers to stem the rise of violence in the country.

“We don’t manufacture weapons in The Bahamas,” he said.

“We don’t. They are coming in through the US and our position is to go after the traffickers and we continue to work closely with our US counterparts and we are doing just that and we are getting a number of results.”

According to data provided by the commissioner of police, police seized 172 firearms so far this year.

They seized 279 last year and 277 the year before, according to police.

Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian