Create more avenues for firearms licensing to reduce illegal possession – Expert tells government

A member of the Ghana Small Arms Commission (GSAC), Mr Baffuor Dokyi Amoah has urged government to establish more firearms licensing centers in the country to reduce the rate at which citizens illegally possess guns.

According to reports, has it that, out of about 1.2 million holders of firearms registered by the Ghana Police Service (GPS) only 40,000 people renew their licenses every year with no trace of the remainder.

This means that more than 1.1 million unlicensed firearms are circulating in the country illegally posing a major threat to national security.

Speaking on GBC’s Behind the News Programm, Mr Baffuor Dokyi Amoah revealed that, “the matter is not only for the fact that licensing charges are either huge or not, people have decided not to register their arms because registration centers are far from their residence hence making it difficult for civilians to do as the law says”

Mr. Amoah again pointed out clearly that the situation is a very worrisome posing lot of dangers to the country.

The Economic Community of West African State (ECOWAS) has also mandated its members to see to it that civilians in possession of firearms are registered.

Meanwhile, the expert also argued that the Ghana Police Service has not done enough by chasing people who possess arms and that could also account for the scourge in the number of unregistered weapons in the country.