Bertha Badu-Agyei
Accra, Feb 22, GNA – West Africa Network on Small Arms and Light Weapons (WAANSA), has called for the support of the media towards the passage of the Arms bill into law in Ghana.
That, he said would ensure proper regulation of small arms and light weapons.
According to WAANSA, the current laws regulating small arms and light weapons were outdated and quite incapable of regulating emerging trends and control of weapons
Reforms , he said were therefore necessary to achieve the desired goals of limiting the illegalities.
Mr Ken Kinney, president WAANSA Ghana, at a media engagement in Accra, said the passage of the bill into law had dragged and emphasized the need for strong advocacy on the part of the media.
He said small arms and light weapons control remained a critical developmental issue which required a robust regulatory framework to deal adequately with arms governance issues to save lives.
“As we speak, there are ongoing violent conflicts in some parts of Ghana and other parts of West Africa which are fuelled by easy access to small arms and poor arms governance regime”
Passage of the Small Arms and Light Weapons law had stalled for some time now and WAANSA, with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Saving Lives Entity (SALIENT) project sought to build capacity of the media for enhanced advocacy on the passage of the law.
Mr Johnson Asante-Twum, who made a presentation on why Ghana needed legal reforms in Small Arms and Light Weapon mentioned three key points justifying why the current Arms law must be reviewed through the passage of the bill into law.
currently there was no limit to the number of weapons a qualified individual could have and that he said “gives the individual the room to build an armoury in his house without infringing on any law”.
Again, there was no legally allowed competency training facility for an individual who acquired a weapon, adding that given the advancement of technology and development it was dangerous to licence the weapon and not licence the owner or trained to handle.
After 18 years, he observed that it had become clear that there were gaps and loopholes in the law and questioned “how do we use a 1962 or 2007 law to fight 2025 crimes?”.
The need to put up a regulatory framework which is forward looking to respond to the fast rate of technology and development in arms control as a country was imperative.
He urged the media to be interested in the passage of the law and question duty bearers as to why the law on small arms and light weapons had not been passed because it bothered on security and safety of the citizenry.
GNA