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Attorney General Reginald Armour SC. – (FILE PHOTO)
Attorney General Reginald Armour says any suggestion or attempt to portray the draft firearms act as government policy is a lie.
Speaking at a media conference at his office on Wednesday, Armour pointed to a headline in a daily newspaper which said, “Government looks to create gun-free zones.”
He said the document being referred to as a draft firearms act, was developed by the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) for his consideration as AG.
“That draft UNODC bill is aligned with international legal framework on firearms and makes proposals for comprehensive system firearms control regulation proposed to me by the UNODC for my consideration in formulating…proposals I may bring to the cabinet in due course.”
He said it is still in its early formative stages and was submitted to internal government agencies and stakeholders as a part of “a comprehensive formative consultative process” and slammed attempts to portray it as anything else.
“Any attempts to misrepresent the contents of that draft as government policy or as anything else, other than a draft for discussion at this point, can only be categorised as mischievous misinformation or in simpler terms, a lie.”
After the consultative process, the bill will be reviewed and then sent to the Law Reform Commission (LRC) for consideration before being taken to cabinet.
“It has not yet reached the stage of being finally presented by my office to the Law Reform Commission, so there is still some significant way to move before it makes its way to cabinet and, thereafter, to parliament for debate.”
Armour described the leaking of the document as unfortunate and said he was concerned a “trusted office-holder” would leak the document at such a sensitive stage in the consultative process.
He said the leak was, in his opinion, dishonest political mischief.
Armour said his remit includes reviewing the laws of TT as necessary and added, “Preliminary steps in this process before a document is submitted to cabinet for approval cannot represent government policy.
“This document has not been submitted to cabinet, does not represent the policy of the Republic of TT and serves only to give the UNC opposition an opportunity to make wild statements not grounded in fact.”
