Senator backs 15-year mandatory minimum, warns against weakening Firearms Act

KINGSTON, Jamaica — Government Senator Abka Fitz-Henley says any perceived or substantive effort to diminish the strength of the Firearms (Prohibition, Restriction and Regulation) Act, which was approved in 2022, should be strongly resisted.

Fitz-Henley says a removal of the mandatory minimum penalty of 15 years, which is being advocated for by some groups, would represent a weakening of the legislation.

Fitz-Henley, who is state minister in the Office of the Prime Minister, is also rejecting as inaccurate a suggestion by some stakeholders that the empirical evidence does not indicate a corresponding reduction in the number of gun-related offences or cases brought before the Gun Court since the passage of the Act in 2022.