Big fines af­ter Firearms Bill was passed in Par­lia­ment

The Gov­ern­ment’s Firearms Bill was passed in Par­lia­ment on Mon­day night with Op­po­si­tion sup­port, which could see citizens being charged some hefty fines.

Peo­ple held with il­le­gal firearms will now be in for se­vere penal­ties, in­clud­ing jail sen­tences for the rest of one’s life.

The bill, passed in the Sen­ate a few months ago, is part of Gov­ern­ment’s “tools” to fight crime in­clud­ing mur­ders.

It in­creas­es the penal­ties for il­le­gal firearm pos­ses­sion.

For the first time al­so, the of­fence of traf­fick­ing in firearms is be­ing in­tro­duced in T&T and the of­fence of pro­hib­it­ed weapons.