The Summary of Gun Laws in the Dominican Republic
Gun ownership is a hot-button issue in the Dominican Republic, as cultural and social context often bring on fierce debates. Those who take a neutral view of the situation will see the Dominican Republic has generally taken a more conservative approach to gun laws, and gun ownership is not nearly as prevalent as in the United States for example. Gun regulations in the country are very strict. Gun control is enforced by the government and law enforcement officials.
At this time there are some 500,000 guns registered with the Ministry of Interior and Police. However, the Ministry does acknowledge that a substantial number of illegal firearms have not been taken into account. Even so, there have been few studies of crime and its causes conducted in the country.
It is known that firearms were introduced to the Dominican Republic by Columbus in 1492. During the second half of the 19th century the importation of arms were prohibited and ammunition was taxed by the Dominican Republic. However, after the withdrawal of US occupation forces from the country in 1924, there was no law on the prohibition of arms until 1969.
The primary law governing firearms ownership in the Dominican Republic is Law No. 36 of April 18, 1967. Under these regulations, licenses are required for all types of firearms , all firearms must be registered and related information such as imports and expert origin must be notified to the Ministry of the Interior.
According to Art. 75 of Law No. 36, civilians may own revolvers that can have five or six chambers. Automatic pistols and box revolvers with more than six chambers are not permitted. Licenses are required for each gun owned.
While prior to 2010 owners of guns and ammunition were free to possess their own private arsenal, in 2010 the Dominican government increased gun laws and implemented the Law for the Control and Regulation of Fire Arms, Ammunition and Fireworks (Law 631-67). The new law implemented a more protracted application system, which takes longer to get through, having to go through a criminal background check, mental health evaluations and other instructions administered by the number two person in the Ministry of the Interior and Police.
Another significant change was that under the old law gun owners were required to re-register their firearms every five years. Gun owners must now re-register every ten years, and they must also undergo evaluations every five years.
Further, according to the new law, which came into full effect in August 2011, anyone caught with an unregistered gun may face up to 20 years imprisonment. In addition, convicted weapons traffickers face up to 30 years imprisonment if the weapons are used to commit a crime.
The Requirements for Receiving a Permit
Obtaining a firearm in the Dominican Republic is a highly-structured process requiring the applicant to undergo security checks, training, psychological examinations, and multiple approval processes, without any certainty of a positive outcome. However, it is important to note that even if all of these hurdles are overcome, the final decision depends on the discretion of the issuing authority. The process starts by submitting an application to the Ministry of the Interior and Police ("MIP") with the following documents: An annual fee must be paid once the license is approved. The fees under current law are RD$1,500 for a license, and RD$500 for the issuance of the card itself. Once the payment is made, the license is issued. However, a government-approved gun shop must be chosen by the applicant; the government will assign the model and specifications of the firearm. The applicant must then submit to a 56-hour firearms training course to be trained in shooting fundamentals, equipment safety, safe handling, cleaning, and maintenance. More than one missed class will result in an automatic failure. After the completion of the course, a shooting exam is conducted in which the applicant must fire off a minimum of 150 rounds. The shooting tests are done by the Directorate of Weapons and Ammunition ("DAA") at the Military Shooting Range. There is a corrective training session if the applicant misses the target five times or less, but the applicant will only have one chance to retake the test if more than five shots miss the target. An air pistol can be used during training, but the applicant must be able to successfully fire a shot with a firearm. Applicants must also pass a psychological evaluation, which consists of an evaluation of the applicant’s mental capacity for the use of a firearm and his or her profile. If the applicant’s profile does not match for the hourly demand of firearm usage, or the evaluation is unfavorable, the applicant will receive a reprimand and is not allowed to carry a firearm. If the applicant passes all of the requirements, he or she will receive the gun license within approximately four months, and is allowed to acquire, possess, keep, carry, transport, and transfer the firearm specified. Business owners in need of a carrying license should follow the same steps as the ones mentioned above, plus the submission of the business registry certificate and the accreditations for the position, along with a copy of the police record of each employee. Each application is analyzed individually depending on the risk level of the business. These are the only circumstances in which the MIP will grant a carry license for a firearm. A carry license will never be granted for any purpose other than the performance of a specific job. In addition, no one can have more than two firearms and 200 cartridges at a time. Until now, the issuance of gun licenses has been issued without any mandatory pre-screening process. There are no statistical records of the number or percentage of refusals to issue permits prior to their official issuance. As a result, it is still unclear whether the existence of this type of pre-screening would alter any aspect of the process itself; for the time being, it appears to be another formality before the issuance of the license.
The Guidelines for Eligibility
In order to be eligible to own a gun in the Dominican Republic, a person must meet several criteria. Both the interested party must be over the age of 18. However, there is no maximum age cap for legal ownership. Applicants must also not have been declared mentally incompetent by a judge. Applicants cannot have been convicted of any crimes that carry sentences of two years or more, and must not have any outstanding legal problems. While applicants don’t have to be citizens in order to own a gun, it is necessary that they have lived at least three years in the Dominican Republic and have a work permit. The applicant must also agree to be registered with the National Police. Unlike some other countries, however, the Dominican Republic does not require firearms training or proficiency testing prior to legal ownership.
The Types of Guns Allowed
To be approved a proposed weapon cannot be a restricted type of weapon in the Dominican Republic and the government has the power to enact restrictions on additional types of weapons when it is deemed appropriate. However, the following categories of firearms are permitted to be obtained under Dominican Laws; Shotguns, Revolver-type pistols, Semi-automatic pistols, Rifles, Carbines and Revolvers, as well as Air Guns. Another factor that the government may consider when deciding to deny or approve an application to own a firearm is its national origin. For example, firearms originating from the United States or Israel would be accepted, but other firearms may be denied. The government does not allow the use of weapons for personal sport, hunting or guarding property.
Penalties for Gun Law Offenses
The Dominican Republic has severe penalties for violations of its gun laws. They indicate that a violation of any of these regulations can result in a fine, confiscation of the weapon, or even jail time. The exact penalties and the procedures that the authorities will follow in imposing them will depend on the circumstances of the case at hand.
Violations include carrying weapons in public without a permit, owning weapons without the required permit, using a weapon in self-defense or attacking someone, transporting a firearm across the border, selling it without a license or in places that are not authorized for the sale of firearms .
Violations of the Dominican Arms and Ammunition Law (Ley de Armas y Municiones), as amended by Law 119 of January 27, 2000, include:
Criminal Code Per Article 220 of Law 876 (the Criminal Code), which was amended by Law No. 122 of February 3, 2000, in cases where a person did not seek a permit or extension of the permit and possessed or carried a firearm, the penalty shall be imprisonment from six months to three years.
Article 337 also states that anyone that violates Articles 220, 224, 227, 228, 230, 234, 235, 238, 239, 245, 246, 253, 254, and 260 will be imprisoned for one to three years. Violation of Articles 226 and 229 will cost the violator two to four years of imprisonment and Article 237 will cost one to three years.
Summary of Gun Laws and Public Safety
The passage of the gun laws at issue in this article has raised various public concerns. Various proponents and critics of the passage of these laws in the Dominican Republic have often cited various public safety concerns as a position for or against the adoption of the law, respectively.
According to the data available for 2012, it is estimated that 26.23% of all homicides committed in the Dominican Republic have been carried out with firearms. This estimate is based on the homicide statistics for the year 2012 released by the National Statistics Office (Oficina Nacional de Estadística). In 2012, there were 2,535 homicides in total (a rate of 20.12 per 100,000 inhabitants), with 666 attributed to a firearm (a rate of 5.35 per 100,000 inhabitants). The remaining homicides were committed with knives, blunt objects, by hanging, and other means. Significant to mention is that the rate of homicide caused by knives, the weapon of choice in the majority of remaining homicides, is almost equal to the international reported average for murder. In the Dominican Republic, the homicide rate per 100,000 inhabitants has been reported at 21, while the average for slow-growing countries is 16.8, and 7.9 for Latin American countries. This large gap between the two numbers has prompted the government to implement new measures to curb crime and violence. For instance, clandestine (i.e., unregulated) gun sales are now illegal. Despite the high rate of crime and violence in the country, a recent survey revealed that 64% of Dominicans consider gun possession an effective self-defense tool and believe that it is up to the government to decide who possesses firearms. By contrast, only 26.8% of the Dominican population considers that gun possession should not be allowed by citizens, while 9.2% considers it should be left to the discretion of the population. Although strong public support for gun ownership and the right to self-defense may conflate in other provinces, such as the United States, in the case of the Dominican Republic, it is also likely that the public supports gun ownership as a means of self-defense due to the high rates of violent crime coupled with a perception that these crimes will not be solved, or that the perpetrators will not be sentenced, through the criminal justice system.
Comparison of Gun Laws to Other Nations
In our final section, we can put into context the Dominican Republic’s gun laws by comparing them to the laws of other countries. Although each nation’s circumstances and cultural norms are unique, comparators allow us to draw some general observations.
Mexico, like the Dominican Republic, has a high level of gun violence and no legal basis for self-defense. Both countries have low levels of gun ownership, although that might change shortly in Mexico. A new bill has been proposed to allow Mexicans to purchase handguns, which are currently only available from one authorized dealer. Democrats in the U.S. have argued that illegal arms trafficking to Mexico is currently exacerbating the problem of violence, but Mexico’s constitution prevents the government from introducing a nationwide gun registration program like the one recently enacted by President Obama through executive action. A national registration program would help the authorities to trace weapons used in crimes, and could assist the country’s new truth commission in determining how many guns are in citizen hands, where the traffickers are based, and whether weapons in circulation were originally purchased legally. Even though Mexico has a low level of gun ownership, it has a strong black market for guns.
Colombia, like Mexico, has high levels of gun violence and many illegal arms on the market. Even though Colombian law allows self-defense, it has not diminished the illegal sales of arms. The country permits civilians to own either hand-held or shoulder-fired weapons, as long as they register the weapons with the authorities . The Colombian constitution doesn’t guarantee the right to bear arms. However, the Supreme Court of Colombia ruled in 1993 that civilians have the right to keep weapons at home, at work, and in their own businesses, provided that the weapons have been duly registered. In an attempt to combat violence, the Colombian government launched a voluntary disarmament program, according to which anyone who gives up his or her weapons can apply for a cash reward and a-nontransferable-legal certificate allowing the individual to have a gun for self-protection.
In Costa Rica there also have lower levels of gun ownership and gun violence than in the Dominican Republic. Even though Costa Rican law does permit individuals to own guns for self-defense, the government mandated in 2009, that citizens must turn in weapons that are not registered, regardless of the reason for which they were acquired.
In Puerto Rico, a territory of the United States, the law requires citizens to have a permit to purchase a firearm and to register it, much as in the Dominican Republic. But the law also permits private ownership of weapons for sporting purposes without the owner having to register them. In Puerto Rico, an amendment to its concealed-carry law was adopted in 2011 permitting concealed-carry of semi-automatic weapons without a permit. Indeed, Puerto Rico has relatively relaxed gun laws compared with the Dominican Republic.
Cuba’s gun control laws are quite similar to those of the Dominican Republic, particularly with respect to the sale of handguns. However, Cuba does permit individuals to own automatic weapons.
+ There are no comments
Add yours