As Gun Rules Ease, Where Are the Bullets Going?

As the Firearms Control Board rolls back restrictions on certain gun accessories and lifts the long standing ban on .223 rifles, an old question is back on the table, where is all the ammunition going? For years, Belizeans have raised concerns that bullets are leaking from the legal system into criminal hands, with licensed gun holders accused of supplying the black market. Now, with broader access being granted, the worry is whether that pipeline could widen. Is the system ready for that risk? We put that question to Francis Usher, CEO in the Ministry of National Defense and a member of the Firearms Control Board. He says the response is tighter oversight, digital tracking, batch monitoring, and random spot checks designed to keep license holders accountable and ammunition where it belongs.

 

Francis Usher, CEO, Ministry of National Defense

“The way that we are trying to increase the trackability of firearms and ammunition, especially so we can prevent it from getting into the hands of the criminals, we are trying to digitize things and there are several programs that we are putting into place and that we are further developing. They exist and we’re further developing on them to ensure that when you -we’re putting a mechanism in place. It’s not fully ready yet, but we’re put putting a mechanism in place that when you go as a licensed firearm holder to buy ammunition for your licensed firearm, the moment you buy it, it’s in a system and we can track how many rounds you bought, when you bought it, what was the batch number. So that, the intent is that we will then move into doing random spot checks. Okay, you say you bought two hundred rounds on this day. Have you gone to the range? If so when did you go? What was the range? We’ll confirm with the range and if you haven’t gone to the range then you should be in possession of this amount of ammunition. Where is it? And so we are building on that. It’s not a perfect system yet. It probably never will be a perfect system but every day that the board is there, we try to develop it so that it gets safer for Belizean.”

 

Usher says while the system is still evolving, the goal is to close the gaps before they’re exploited, and ensure that every round sold can be accounted for.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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