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File photo: National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds.

National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds said of 108 legal firearms involved in matters which attracted police attention, 18 have been recovered by the police. He said of these, there had been seven shootings, including four murders and three suicides, while others had been used in robberies.

Hinds was responding to questions during a joint select committee meeting on national security addressing the issue of firearms and gun violence.

He said these firearms were not owned by security firms or law-enforcement personnel, but the general population. He said the matters involving the 108 firearms happened within recent months, although he said later the incidents happened between 2017 and 2021.

“What I got was the raw data, where 108 weapons would have come to the attention of the police, some by virtue of being lost, and people have been charged for negligently losing them, which is a criminal offense under the Firearms Act. Some were stolen, which is a criminal offence and, since I spoke on Tuesday, I got further information there were seven shootings with firearms issued to Firearm Users’ Licence (FUL) holders, four of them murders and three suicides, in the context of murder/suicide. There have been cases where people have made them available to criminals for criminal activity, and some of these people have been arrested.

“Some people have been negligent in their management of their firearms. We’ve seen people leaving firearms in cars to go shopping, and the criminals stealing them. In other cases people have not secured them properly at home, and people have even been showing off or gallerying with them.”

He noted there was a correlation between the increase of FULs and this increase of legal firearms being used in matters of concern.

“The records available show an exponential increase in the issuance of FULs and firearms in the context of what the law calls variations. People would get a licence and then apply for a variation. The recent audit showed the concept of variation may have been abused because the capacity for determining the safety, security and capacity to properly manage, and the need for additional firearm(s), was not properly exercised, so now you have many citizens out there with anywhere from nine to 35 guns. There is also a tremendous amount of ammunition around as shown by a recent shooting where 65 shell casings were found. Millions of rounds of ammunition were authorised to be brought in by firearms dealers.”

He said the monitoring mechanism for legal firearms needed to be strengthened. He said the police were bound to make regular visits to security firms, firearms dealers, and gunsmiths to match police records with those of the business. He said FUL holders were required to take their firearms to a station yearly to be checked, and the police had the right to investigate their homes or businesses to see that the firearms were being secured properly. He said he was not sure those methods have been consistently followed.

Hinds said another issue was licences were issued for the importation of component parts, which could make it difficult to trace ballistics. He said an audit was taking place in this regard. He said he did not think auditing FUL holders more frequently was possible presently.

Hinds said there had been an unwritten restrictive policy with respect to the issuing of legal firearms, and FULs were only supposed to be used if there was a demonstrable need, with robust processes taking place before one was issued. He said the conduct of the former police commissioner ran contrary to this restrictive policy, and the figures for grant of FULs were very small compared to the three years when he was in office.

Opposition Senator Jayanti Lutchmedial questioned whether the matters in which the firearms were used were non-violent. She questioned whether the exponential use of legal firearms being used had a corresponding use of people defending themselves because they were under attack.

Hinds said the police service was focused on the fact that the society was increasingly violent.

He said a policy was being drafted with respect to firearms and the authority of the police commissioner.

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Tropical Storm Nicole forced people from their homes in the Bahamas and threatened to grow into a rare November hurricane in Florida on Wednesday, shutting down airports and Disney World as well as prompting evacuation orders that included former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club.

Hundreds of people sought shelter in the northwestern Bahamas before the approaching storm, which had already sent seawater washing across roads on Hutchinson Island in Martin County, Florida.

“We are forecasting it to become a hurricane as it nears the northwestern Bahamas, and remain a hurricane as it approaches the east coast of Florida,” Daniel Brown, a senior hurricane specialist at the Miami-based National Hurricane Center, said Wednesday.

Nicole is the first storm to hit the Bahamas since Hurricane Dorian, a Category 5 storm that devastated the archipelago in 2019, before hitting storm-weary Florida.

In the Bahamas, officials said that more than 520 people were in more than two dozen shelters. Flooding and power outages were reported in Abaco island.

“We are asking people to please take it (seriously),” said Andrea Newbold with the Disaster Management Unit for Social Services. “Don’t wait until the last minute.”

Residents in several Florida counties — Flagler, Palm Beach, Martin and Volusia — were ordered to evacuate from barrier islands, low-lying areas and mobile homes.

Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s club and home, is in one of those evacuation zones, built about a quarter-mile inland from the ocean. The main buildings sit on a small rise that is about 15 feet (4.6 metres) above sea level and the property has survived numerous stronger hurricanes since it was built nearly a century ago. The resort’s security office hung up Wednesday when an Associated Press reporter asked whether the club was being evacuated.

There is no penalty for ignoring an evacuation order, but rescue crews will not respond if it puts their members at risk.

Disney World and related theme parks announced they were closing early on Wednesday evening and likely would not reopen as scheduled on Thursday.

Palm Beach International Airport closed Wednesday morning, and Daytona Beach International Airport said it would cease operations at 12:30 pm Orlando International Airport, the seventh busiest in the US, was set to close at 4 pm. Wednesday. Further south, officials said Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and Miami International Airport were experiencing some flight delays and cancellations but both planned to remain open.

At a news conference in Tallahassee, Governor Ron DeSantis said winds were the biggest concern and significant power outages could occur, but that 16,000 linemen were on standby to restore power, as well as 600 guardsmen and seven search and rescue teams.

“It will affect huge parts of the state of Florida all day,” DeSantis said of the storm’s expected landing.

Almost two dozen school districts were closing schools for the storm and 15 shelters had opened along Florida’s east coast, the governor said.

Florida Division of Emergency Management director Kevin Guthrie said Floridians should expect possible tornadoes, rip currents and flash flooding.

Bahamas Prime Minister Philip Brave Davis, who is at the COP27 UN Climate Summit, said he has mobilised all government resources.

“There have always been storms, but as the planet warms from carbon emissions, storms are growing in intensity and frequency,” he said. “For those in Grand Bahama and Abaco, I know it is especially difficult for you to face another storm,” Davis said, referring to the islands hardest hit by Dorian.

At 10 am, the storm was 25 miles (40 kilometres) east northeast of Great Abaco Island and about 210 miles (340 kilometres) east of West Palm Beach, Florida. With maximum sustained winds of 70 mph (110 kph), the storm was moving at 12 mph (19 kph).

Tropical storm force winds extended as far as 460 miles (740 kilometres) from the centre in some directions.

It could intensify into a rare November hurricane before hitting Florida, where only two have made landfall since recordkeeping began in 1853 — the 1935 Yankee Hurricane and Hurricane Kate in 1985.

New warnings and watches were issued for many parts of Florida, including the southwestern Gulf coastline which was devastated by Hurricane Ian, which struck as a Category 4 storm on September 28. The storm destroyed homes and damaged crops, including orange groves, across the state.

Ian lashed much of the central region of Florida with heavy rainfall, causing flooding that many residents are still dealing with as Nicole approaches.

In Florida, the “combination of a dangerous storm surge and the tide will cause normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters moving inland from the shoreline,” the hurricane center’s advisory said.

Hurricane specialist Brown said the storm will affect a large part of the state.

“Because the system is so large, really almost the entire east coast of Florida except the extreme southeastern part and the Keys is going to receive tropical storm force winds,” he said.

The storm is then expected to move across central and northern Florida into southern Georgia on Thursday, forecasters said. It was then forecast to move across the Carolinas on Friday.

“We are going to be concerned with rainfall as we get later into the week across portions of the southeastern United States and southern Appalachians, where there could be some flooding, flash flooding with that rainfall,” Brown said.

Early Wednesday, President Joe Biden declared an emergency in Florida and ordered federal assistance to supplement state, tribal and local response efforts to the approaching storm. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is still responding to those in need from Hurricane Ian.

Subscribe to BiP’s Weather Channel for timely weather updates. Click here to download the BiP app or simply click here to follow the Weather Channel for existing customers.

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By FREIDA FRISARO and DANICA COTO Associated Press

Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Associated Press reporters Zeke Miller in Washington, DC, and Terry Spencer in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, contributed to this report.

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Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal. –

Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal has accused National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds of recommending several people for firearms users’ licences (FULs). Hinds has denied the allegation.

During Wednesday’s sitting of the Joint Select Committee on National Security, addressing the

factors contributing to the prevalence of illegal firearms and gun violence, Moonilal asked Hinds whether he would agree that prime ministers and ministers of government should not be recommending private citizens for FULs.

“The former commissioner of police is on record as saying that very high-ranking officials, including Fitzgerald Hinds and myself, requested or recommended people for obtaining an FUL. Would you agree to a shift that PMs, MPs, and goverment ministers should not be recommending private citizens for FULs?”

Hinds said and reiterated that he did not remember recommending anyone for an FUL.

“I want the record to read that I recommended no-one for a firearm users’ licence.”

Moonilal later sent photos to the media of a WhatsApp conversation, purportedly between former police commissioner Gary Griffith and Hinds. The first message read,

“Commissioner, I have a couple FUL applications for my security detail of soldiers. There is no objection from their warrant officer and the TTDF. I have watched them now for two years and I am satisfied that they are fit and worthy. They rotate with the CJ’s detail as well. Please give them your most favourable consideration. Should I send them directly to you.”

The response was “Yeah, just WhatsApp me full name with reference number.”

Several other messages followed in which Hinds purportedly followed up on these applications.

When the messages were forwarded to Griffith for comment, he said Hinds, the PM, and the current police commissioner were being hypocritical in their stance on FULs.

“These three people give the impression that recommending people to have firearms or law-abiding citizens acquiring firearms is the worst thing, but these three individuals cannot, in any way, state that they were not instrumental or a part of trying to assist many people in acquiring firearms.

“I have no issue with that at all, because it is your right to recommend people to the police commissioner or whoever, and then it is that you will do due diligence to ascertain if the people are eligible, entitled, and of sound body and mind to acquire it.”

Asked whether the photos were of his conversations with Hinds, Griffith said, “No comment.”

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Les espoirs républicains d’une “vague” au Congrès américain semblaient s’éloigner mercredi, les démocrates espérant pouvoir limiter la casse lors d’élections de mi-mandat tout aussi décisives pour l’avenir politique de Joe Biden…

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