AMMO SHORTAGE

One of the four active guns and ammunition dealers supplying private companies and licensed firearm owners in Jamaica has run out of bullets, following a crippling arms embargo imposed by the United States on Jamaica and 35 other countries, industry insiders have revealed.

And faced with dwindling stockpiles of ammunition, the other three dealers have begun to turn away clients – licensed gun owners, private security companies and range operators – or are only partially fulfilling the orders they receive.

The restrictions on guns, ammunition and gun parts exported from the US to non-governmental users in Jamaica and 35 other countries were first announced by American authorities in April and took effect on July 1.

The police or the Jamaican military are not impacted by the restrictions, Minister of National Security Dr Horace Chang confirmed.

The Sunday Gleaner has taken the decision not to name the dealers because of the sensitive nature of the information.

“Part of the problem with this embargo is that you are tightening the hands of the people who are legal, who you can account for, who you can hold accountable, but there is nothing restricting the people [criminals] who are really causing the problem,” the arms dealer lamented.

“So we might probably end up in a situation like Haiti, where the gangs are the ones running up and down the streets and we who have firearms have no ammunition to fight them off.”

CONTRACT UNDER THREAT

Seeking to underscore the gravity of the situation, the dealer said he was recently contacted by the proprietors of two private security companies seeking 6,000 and 4,000 rounds of ammunition.

“We could not fulfil the orders,” he told The Sunday Gleaner during an interview on Friday.

One of the companies currently has a contract with a diplomatic mission and that arrangement could be in jeopardy, according to the registered arms and ammunition dealer.

“A part of the contract with embassies in Jamaica is that you have to have quarterly range practices, for which you have to maintain a minimum score. This is a part of the contractual agreement, and if they can't meet it, then they are breaching the contract,” he explained.

Licensed gun owners in Jamaica are permitted to buy 50 rounds of ammunition each year, but the arms dealer said he has already restricted that to 25.

“On the range, normally you can buy 200 rounds per day; we are now down to 50 rounds per person for the day. We are looking to keep that until December … and come January, we may do further restrictions.”

Amid complaints that there has been no update from the Government about its efforts to ease the crippling embargo, Chang disclosed that Jamaica is currently “going through the review process to see if we can get it lifted”.

He said inspectors from the US state and commerce departments have visited the island and have examined the processes in place at a number of state agencies, including the regulatory body, the Firearms Licensing Authority.

“I guess they will come again before they make a final decision,” said Chang, who is also the deputy prime minister.

He said as far as the Government is aware, American authorities are seeking to ensure that there are no loopholes and possible leakage in the gun-control safeguards in Jamaica, particularly for private gun and ammunition dealers.

“We have a lot of firearms being fired in Jamaica so they had to take a look and reassure themselves that none of it is leaking,” Chang said, noting that the Government is “really satisfied” with the processes put in place by the main gun and ammunition dealers here.

NERVOUS STAKEHOLDERS

The concern, however, for nervous stakeholders in the local private security industry, is whether the issue is being treated with the urgency it requires.

“How aggressively are we treating with this matter to resolve it as a country and as a region?” retired Major Richard Reece, president of the Jamaica Society for Industrial Security (JSIS), questioned, while acknowledging that “it is a challenge for any government”.

He noted that there are other countries that manufacture guns and ammunition, but said navigating the shipping arrangements is fraught with several challenges.

“So let's say you order from country X and the shipping route takes you through a US port. That, too, will face a restriction,” he said, adding that some of these countries are already facing other US sanctions.

Taking a shot at American authorities, Reece said Jamaica has a “very rigid” set of arrangements governing licensed firearms “even more so than the United States that imposed the embargo”.

The new export rules implemented by the US Department of Commerce in July restrict the sale of guns, bullets and gun parts to 36 countries – including Jamaica, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Dominican Republic – which the US State Department simultaneously labelled as “high risk” for illegal diversion and misuse of American-made firearms that were legally exported.

The new rules also provide increased scrutiny and tracking of all firearms exports, US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo announced at the time.

Approximately 316 – or nearly 67 per cent – of the illegal guns seized at crime scenes across Jamaica in 2020 and sent to the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) for tracing were either manufactured in the US or legally imported there, according to the latest statistics published by the ATF.

American authorities disclosed, too, an analysis by the ATF of guns submitted for tracing by international law enforcement agencies between 2017 and 2021 revealed that at least 11 per cent – or 18,749 – were lawfully exported from the US and later recovered at a crime scene in a foreign country.

“Too often, firearms exports fall into the wrong hands and end up being used in ways that directly undermine US national security and foreign policy interests,” Raimondo said in a press statement in April.

But while Jamaican authorities wait on their US counterparts to lift the embargo, the shortage of ammunition locally is one of several related issues that have sent jitters through the private security industry.

The private security industry employs approximately 30,000 armed and unarmed guards, records show.

Ammunition, particularly those used for training, is the lifeblood of private security companies, including armoured cash-in-transit teams that have been targeted by criminals in a recent spate of robberies.

“At some point, one could actually run out of ammunition so we are extremely concerned,” Reece told The Sunday Gleaner on Friday.

Mandatory tactical firearms training and replacing obsolete guns are the other areas that will be impacted, the JSIS president said.

livern.barrett@gleanerjm.com