Po­lit­i­cal leader of the Na­tion­al Trans­for­ma­tion Al­liance (NTA), Gary Grif­fith—a for­mer Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice, as well as a for­mer Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty—is urg­ing the new gov­ern­ment to en­sure ro­bust mech­a­nisms are in place for the ap­proval of firearm user’s li­cences or FULs.

Speak­ing to­day on CNC3's The Morn­ing Brew show, Grif­fith said giv­en the se­ri­ous re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of is­su­ing firearms user's li­cens­es, vig­i­lance is need­ed from the State.

“We have to be very vig­i­lant to make sure the right per­sons get it,” Grif­fith as­sert­ed, even as he ad­vo­cat­ed for a thresh­old of some 1,000-2,000 FULs per year.

“No more than three to five [li­cens­es] per day. Any­time you go more than that, the due dili­gence will then col­lapse, and the wrong per­sons could get it,” he ex­plained, not­ing that prop­er back­ground checks and psy­cho­me­t­ric test­ing must be car­ried out on any FUL ap­pli­cant.

The for­mer top cop had strong­ly dis­agreed with what he says was the wrong po­si­tion on the is­sue by for­mer Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Fitzger­ald Hinds.

Ac­cord­ing to Grif­fith, the for­mer min­is­ter ap­peared to think that “it's okay for crim­i­nals to have firearms but not law-abid­ing cit­i­zens”.

The is­suance of FUL's was one of sev­er­al cit­i­zen se­cu­ri­ty re­lat­ed promis­es made by Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar dur­ing her cam­paign for this year's gen­er­al elec­tion.