In a bid to en­sure a more thor­ough as­sess­ment of ap­pli­cants for Firearms Users’ Li­cences (FULs), Min­is­ter of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Roger Alexan­der is sug­gest­ing that checks on so­cial me­dia ac­counts should al­so be in­clud­ed as part of the vet­ting process.

Alexan­der said it would be an added se­cu­ri­ty mech­a­nism to en­sure that prospec­tive FUL hold­ers were re­spon­si­ble enough to own and op­er­ate a gun.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia af­ter at­tend­ing an in­ter-faith ser­vice at the St Au­gus­tine Sec­ondary School on Gor­don Street on Mon­day, Alexan­der said he had re­cent­ly spo­ken with Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro. He said he rec­om­mend­ed that so­cial me­dia checks be added to the list of process­es for FUL ap­pli­cants.