Eight firearms stolen in five years

Eight firearms, as well as hundreds
of rounds of ammunition, have been stolen from their legally licensed owners in
the Cayman Islands since 2005, according to records obtained through a Freedom
of Information request filed by the Caymanian Compass.

Records provided by the Royal
Cayman Islands Police Service to the newspaper also indicated that only two of
those weapons and a few rounds of ammunition have since been recovered. The
other weapons remain unaccounted for.

Police Commissioner David Baines
has previously expressed concern about the number of instances where
legally-held firearms have been taken from their rightful owners’ possession.

While the numbers produced by the
RCIPS reveal that there is not an epidemic of firearm theft occurring, it does
happen about once a year.

According to Mr. Baines, there are
somewhere between 1,100 and 1,600 licenced firearms held in the Cayman Islands
at any given time. Firearms ownership and importation applications must be
filed with the police and those must be approved by the commissioner or his
designate before someone is allowed to possess a weapon.

The police service has reported the
following instances of firearms theft from a lawful owners’ home:

*5 July, 2005 – a 9mm handgun as
well as an estimated 150-200 rounds of ammunition were taken from a location on
Shamrock Road. Nothing was ever recovered.

*2 October, 2006 – At a George Town
home, a 22 calibre rifle and several ammunition rounds were taken. They were
later recovered.

*17 August, 2007 – a 12 gauge
Remington with an undetermined amount of ammo was taken from a West Bay home;
none of it was recovered.

*7 July, 2008 – Three weapons, a
.38 calibre revolver, a 22 calibre rifle, and a 12 gauge shotgun were taken
from a home in Bodden Town and never found.

*20 April, 2010 – In Newlands, a 12
gauge shotgun with 50 rounds of ammo, as well as a 9mm pistol with 150 rounds
were taken. Only the shotgun was recovered.

Three of the thefts – the ones that
occurred in George Town, West Bay and Bodden Town – occurred during the
daylight hours. The thefts on Shamrock Road and in Newlands happened in the
evening.

Although police estimates state
there are at least 1,100 legally owned firearms in Cayman, local gun owners
have previously voiced their beliefs that RCIPS is overestimating that number.

RCIPS statistics provided to the
Compass under the Freedom of Information Law appear to bear out at least some
of those claims.

According to police records, there
were 289 applications for firearms renewals processed between January 2007 and
March 2010; a period of more than three years. The vast majority of the renewal
applications were approved, according to officials with government’s Portfolio
of Internal and External Affairs.

Between January 2008 and January of
this year there were 30 new firearms applications granted and 18 denied.

“There are no accurate records that
can be relied on in respect to new firearms applications prior to 2008,” the
RCIPS response to the open records request stated.

The firearms application form the
police uses is not contained in any version of the law or regulations. It also
makes requirements of applicants that are not contained in the Firearms Law
(2008 Revision).

The 2009 version of the firearms
restricted users application requires permit seekers to have “two letters from
prominent persons in the community” such as doctors, lawyers, MLAs and the
like. No such requirement is contained in the text of the Firearms Law.

A letter from the Agriculture
Department is required if the firearm application states the weapon is to be
used for hunting. A letter from the Cayman Islands Sports Shooting Association
is required if the firearm is to be used at the Grand Cayman firing range,
according to the police forms.