Loop in firearm act; no mention of homemade gun

dickie bradley

Three adults and a minor were charged last Friday for Keeping a Prohibited Firearm after police found a suspected homemade gun in a yard at Curl Thompson Street. The sixteen year old, pleaded guilty and the charges were withdrawn against the adults. The minor was kept in custody at the Youth Hostel pending sentencing, which was scheduled for Tuesday. But the case took a turn when attorneys for the minor questioned the Firearms Act which does not define a homemade gun. Attorney Dickie Bradley told News Five today that there was no evidence that the item found could discharge a bullet. So instead of facing a minimum of three years in jail, the minor was freed of the charge today. Bradley explained how the matter unfolded.

Dickie Bradley, Attorney

“I did not represent the young man but family members asked me to come on Tuesday and so I was submitting and making arguments that the charge of having a homemade firearm was contained in a statutory instrument, not in a law passed through the House of Representatives, the Senate and the Governor General and that there is something that is of concern in this particular case for two reasons. One, there is no definition of what is a homemade firearm. Normally, in the law it will say a firearm is any weapon or object or thing that can shoot out a bullet. There is no definition of what is a homemade firearm.  So I’m putting forward arguments and in fact the Chief Magistrate said, you know because of the legal matters that are arising, she is going to look a little further and set this morning for the matter. And in fact, it is her research, she is of the view—she is not making a legal ruling on the matter, but she is of the view as she said to myself and to attorney Anthony Sylvestre and to the prosecutor, Mr. Castillo, that there are some things that need to be clarified. She would like to know what would be the explanation and the answer to certain matters. Now I need to use those matters in a next case so I don’t want to say it all out here but in the light of what transpired in terms of the legality of the law, of the statutory instrument, of what is in the statutory instrument and the making of the statutory instrument, the Chief Magistrate did not rule. She did not make a final determination but she has expressed that this is a matter for her.

In any event, this morning justice was served in the sense that it would have been an injustice in my humble opinion to send that young man to three years imprisonment for a piece of board and a pipe, which no one can say can discharge a bullet, which was found in a yard which is not fully fenced behind wah old septic tank when several people live in that yard and there are neighbors and people who could pass through that yard, it would be difficult to convict that young man. 00:06:14 if it had gone to trial, Anthony Sylvestre would have won that case but this morning, as a consequence of what has been unfolding, the prosecution withdrew the charges against the young man.”

Because the minor’s mother has died, his father works at sea and he is not in school or employed, the Chief Magistrate gave a stern warning to his aunt, who was present, that he is on a dangerous path and needs to get it together. The youth has committed to doing something more constructive with his life.