With the stroke of a pen, last week acting Governor Inez Archibald decriminalised paintball guns, flare guns and pump-action shotguns – items that were apparently banned by accident in March when the House of Assembly passed legislation to increase penalties for firearms crimes.
The many people throughout the territory who use paintball guns for recreation, flare guns for safety, or pump-action shotguns to keep their farms vermin-free now no longer have to fear the spectre of five years behind bars – the minimum sentence recommended by the law for possession of one of the listed weapons.
“That sounds like good news to me,” Minutemen Paintball Course owner Trevorn Penn said on Monday when this reporter broke the news to him, adding that reopening his business “will be the next step.”
This amendment follows widespread criticism from residents – especially those in the marine industry who own flare guns – when police confirmed in June that they would be enforcing the prohibition.
Premier Dr. Orlando Smith announced in July that the HOA planned to amend the legislation to address “some concerns with the act,” but then-Police Commissioner David Morris said the law would be enforced in the meantime.
Guv’s authority
The manner in which the law was changed is unusual: Typically laws are brought back to the HOA in order to be amended.
In this case, Ms. Archibald – acting in her authority while Governor John Duncan is out of the territory until next week – exercised her power under Section 42 of the law, which allows the governor to make amendments when acting on the advice of the National Security Council.
Calls to the Governor’s and Deputy Governor’s offices seeking comment as to why the legislation was changed did not receive a response.
Officials have yet to explain how the original list of prohibited weapons was compiled, though Dr. Smith said in a June interview that it was never the government’s intention to ban non-lethal weapons.
“When we had that discussion, that was not envisioned – we weren’t thinking about paintballs. We’ll have to review and remove things like that,” he said. “What we’re interested in is making sure the country is safe, making sure that lethal weapons are not there in the public without being accounted for.”
Australian law
It appears that the list of prohibited weapons was modelled after a similar list in an Australian law.
In fact, the two lists are near- verbatim copies of each other, and both ban specific types of weapons such as “Uberti or Armi-Jager brands” and others “made up in the form of a stylographic or propelling pen or pencil.”
The main difference between the two lists is that the VI legislation bans Tasers and the Australian law bans replica firearms.
Attorney General Baba Aziz refused to answer when asked in July whether his office had been responsible for drafting the list of prohibited weapons.
“I have nothing useful to add,” he said, explaining that he avoids speaking to the media and orders the rest of his chambers to do the same because his job duties laid out in the Constitution require him only to advise the government. “There are things you will ask me: I won’t tell you what the content of them is.”
Similarly, former AG Dr. Christopher Malcolm – who left office at the end of December – told this reporter via e-mail in June not “to ever again waste my time with inquiries of the nature that you have made herein.”
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