Law Enforcement Takes on Ammunition and Firearms Management

This afternoon, twenty-three men and women attached to various law enforcement agencies completed a brief training on ammunition and firearms management.  It’s part of a regional initiative to reduce gun violence by ensuring that firearms that are stored by the police departments do not end up in the hands of criminals who use these weapons to perpetrate crime and violence.  Deputy Commissioner of Police Bart Jones was present at a brief ceremony held in recognition of the training being concluded.

Bart Jones

Bart Jones, Deputy Commissioner of Police

“We start first with the whole issue of gun violence and how it has impacted Belize and the wider Caribbean and the world.  We recognize that there was the need for us as security forces to address the issue of gun violence and part of that includes the diversion of arms and ammunition from government stores and we’ve had the stories.  In 2023, we engaged the CARICOM IMPACS and we did an assessment of some of our armories and from that came a report which made certain recommendations, including this training which is ammunition management, firearms management.  These persons that are trained this week will be able to, in the future, carry out inspection on the different stores that we have that store ammunition, both the police, the BDF, customs, and be able to make recommendations for certain adjustments based on what they’ve learned this week.  Apart from the material that they covered, they were offered other resources that are available online that they could enhance their knowledge.  And so, it is for us to then improve on our facilities to prevent this whole issue of diversion of firearms from our armories.”