The porous nature of the country's borders especially those linking it with Brazil and Suriname is being cited as a reason for the large amount of illegal firearms in circulation here.
Speaking on the Government Information Agency's (GINA) sponsored programme `Answers', Minister of Home Affairs, Ronald Gajraj, posited that the proliferation of arms in the country was partly due to weaknesses at the border posts.
The minister, who was responding to a question on the large and diverse amount of weaponry being used by criminals, noted that neighbouring Brazil being an arms producer was a likely source for some of the illegal firearms.
This required the arsenal of the police force to be beefed up to deal specifically with increasing gun crimes and to give ranks the requisite confidence to deal with a new breed of criminals.
He was also in favour of issuing firearms licences to farmers, Amerindians and members of the business community once they had been checked out and proved to be fit and proper persons. He said that the call for the disbandment of the Anti Crime Unit (ACU) - otherwise knows as the Target Special Squad - was preposterous since all would agree that there was need for special units to deal with certain types of crimes and new breeds of criminals. This, he stated, was not specific or limited to Guyana.
However, this did not allow or give members of these units licence to break the law, but rather should see them following set procedures and principles in carrying out their law enforcement duties.
In order to achieve an enhanced level of policing there are plans to institute several initiatives including counselling of officers of all units on proper procedures to be followed.