‘Ghost guns’ warning

Barbados and other Caribbean countries are being warned to take the growing threat of privately-made firearms (PMFs) more seriously.

With increased gun crimes worrying authorities here and in the region, the Small Arms Survey, an associated programme of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland, is calling for more in-depth data collection on these types of weapons to help tackle what it calls a threat to security and public health.

Concern about PMFs was raised in the new report Dangerous Devices: Privately Made Firearms In The Caribbean, which the Small Arms Survey has published in partnership with the Caribbean Community Implementation Agency For Crime And Security, Caribbean Public Health Agency, and the George Alleyne Chronic Disease Research Centre, The University of the West Indies.

The report used the United States government’s definition of PMFs, which is “a firearm, including a frame or receiver, assembled by a person other than a licensed manufacturer, and not containing a serial number or other identifying marking placed by a licensed manufacturer at the time the firearm was produced”.

The researchers said that “as most types of PMFs do not include serial numbers and are therefore difficult to trace – at least through conventional methods – they are also often referred to as ‘ghost guns’’’.

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