The president of the of the Dominican Justice System Observatory, lawyer Cesar Amadeo Peralta has warned that if the population does not wake up, one day they will be surprised by a new firearms law whose main object will be to disarm civilians, including shop owners, businesspeople, professionals and all who currently say they need a firearm.
Lawyer Cesar Amadeo Peralta criticized the excessive requirements contained in the proposal for taking out a firearms license and the ease with which a license can be cancelled. He said that the country is not ready to disarm the population, which needs a gun to combat the increase in crime.
However, Amadeo Peralta asked for more drastic sanctions against people who use firearms to commit crimes, saying it is they who should be punished and not civilians who have legal weapons for self-defense.
He suggested that legislators should encourage the registration of illegal weapons and renewal of licenses that have expired and do not do anything to affect citizens who have weapons to guarantee their security, that of their families, their businesses or their properties.
He went on to deplore the fact that in the 98 articles of the proposal for the new firearms law only two or three talk about increasing the penalties for criminals who use illegal firearms to commit crimes and that most of the articles are about regulating the use and carry of arms and munitions, to the detriment of citizens who have them legally.
In response, Victor Bisono, author of the firearms bill (Proyecto de Ley de Control, Porte y Tenencia de Armas de Fuego) says that it discourages the use of illegal firearms. He added that the intention was not to disarm the population and that the focus was to establish drastic penalties for illegal firearms use. He described the 1965 firearms law as obsolete and criticized the fact that despite the import ban, firearms are being imported from Brazil, the United States, Russia and other countries.
The new bill, which has yet to pass in Congress, establishes an insurance that would cover damages to third parties, both voluntarily and involuntarily.
He highlighted the case of Francina Hungria, the young engineer who lost her eyesight in an armed robbery, as an inspiration for the passing of the bill.
The bill establishes that if a person has lived abroad, in order to be authorized to possess a gun, a good conduct certificate from their place of residence in the past five years needs to be presented. Firearms will also be banned for anyone who has been deported for the crimes of drug trafficking and homicide.
The bill prohibits the display of firearms, regardless of whether the person is a member of the military forces or a civilian.
Bisono said that the spirit of the bill is to curtail the use of illegal firearms. Penalties of at least three years in jail for possessing a firearm without a license and up to 40 years if a crime is committed with it, Bisono said when commenting on the bill on the Interactivo Super 7 (107.7) with George Rodriguez, Juan Taveras and Ruddy Gonzalez.
http://www.7dias.com.do/portada/2016/06/20/i212664_bisono-aclara-que-ley-sobre-arma-promovida-por-pretende-desarmar-poblacion.html
http://eldia.com.do/jurista-advierte-ley-de-armas-contempla-desarme-de-la-poblacion/
