Bunting implicated in FLA scandal

Kimone Francis/Staff Reporter

Opposition spokesman Peter Bunting has been implicated in the scandal rocking the Firearm Licensing Authority (FLA) after a special Integrity Commission report identified him as one of two former national security ministers who granted firearm permits to persons with criminal traces. 

Robert 'Bobby' Montague was the other.

READ: How Montague granted gun permits to six people with criminal traces

The special report of an investigation into allegations concerning acts of impropriety, irregularity and corruption in the issuance of firearm permits to persons of questionable character covered the period 2012 to 2018.

Bunting held the national security portfolio between 2012 and 2016 and was succeeded by Montague under a new administration up to 2018.

Montague is the now a Minister Without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation.

The report, which was tabled in parliament on Tuesday, highlighted two instances in which Bunting, on appeal, approved applicants whose firearm user licence applications were denied by the FLA Board.

READ: Dennis Meadows could be charged over FLA misconduct

In one instance, the report said Bunting approved an applicant who was arrested and charged in the United States for the offences of trafficking cocaine, four counts of larceny and grand theft in the third degree.

The applicant's firearm user's licence was revoked in September 2012 on the basis that he misrepresented himself to the FLA and could no longer be considered fit and proper to be issued with a firearm.

But the report said the applicant's criminal record was expunged two years later in October 2014 and, by way of a letter, “it was indicated that Mr Peter Bunting, then minister of national security, granted the issuance of a firearm user licence”.

The FLA board also subsequently withdrew the 2012 revocation because the basis on which the permit was revoked had become void.

In the second instance, the report said Bunting approved an applicant who was arrested and charged for the offence of indecent assault.

Additionally, the report said that it was further revealed that the applicant molested a little girl who was related to his wife.

However, the matter was not reported to the police resulting in no action taken against the applicant.

His firearm user licence application was denied in January 2012 on the basis that the applicant was interviewed and found unfit to be armed.

It was subsequently approved on appeal in April 2014.

Bunting has said the granting of the firearm user licence applications was premised on the submissions of the applicants, the reports of the responsible officers and all the material in the official documents submitted to him by officials of the Ministry of National Security.

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