New York At­tor­ney Gen­er­al, Leti­tia James, is lead­ing a coali­tion of 12 at­tor­neys gen­er­al call­ing on the Unit­ed States Con­gress to take ac­tion to stop gun traf­fick­ing from the Unit­ed States to Caribbean coun­tries.

In their let­ter, the at­tor­neys gen­er­al say gun traf­fick­ing from the Unit­ed States has con­tributed to gun vi­o­lence in Caribbean coun­tries, where many New York­ers and Amer­i­cans have fam­i­lies.

The coali­tion out­lines a num­ber of mea­sures the US Con­gress can take to help re­duce gun traf­fick­ing in­to the Caribbean, in­clud­ing en­sur­ing in­spec­tors at ports have enough re­sources to make in­spec­tions and pass­ing the Caribbean Arms Traf­fick­ing Caus­es Harm (CATCH) Act.

James said the CATCH Act would pro­vide state and fed­er­al gov­ern­ments with more in­for­ma­tion about gun traf­fick­ing in­to the Caribbean and de­ter­mine which an­ti-gun traf­fick­ing meth­ods are work­ing to re­duce gun vi­o­lence.

“Amer­i­can-made guns are flow­ing in­to Caribbean na­tions and com­mu­ni­ties and fu­el­ing vi­o­lence, chaos, and sense­less tragedies through­out the re­gion,” the New York At­tor­ney Gen­er­al told the Caribbean Me­dia Cor­po­ra­tion (CMC).

“This is­sue hits es­pe­cial­ly close to home, as many New York­ers have fam­i­ly in Caribbean na­tions who are en­dur­ing dan­ger­ous con­di­tions, par­tial­ly be­cause of easy ac­cess to dan­ger­ous weapons from our coun­try.

“We have a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to ad­dress this cri­sis, and that is why I am call­ing on Con­gress to take ac­tion to stop gun traf­fick­ing in­to Caribbean coun­tries. When we tack­le the gun vi­o­lence cri­sis from every an­gle, we pro­tect every­one,” she added.

In their let­ter, James and the coali­tion of at­tor­neys gen­er­al, said the num­ber of guns smug­gled in­to the Caribbean from the Unit­ed States has surged in re­cent years and con­tributes sig­nif­i­cant­ly to gun vi­o­lence in those coun­tries.

For in­stance, they point to a 2023 Unit­ed Na­tions re­port that in­di­cat­ed that the Unit­ed States has been a “prin­ci­pal source of firearms and mu­ni­tions in Haiti”.

Ad­di­tion­al­ly, the at­tor­neys gen­er­al write that “Ja­maican Se­cu­ri­ty Min­istry es­ti­mates that at least 200 guns are traf­ficked from the Unit­ed States in­to the coun­try each month”.

They say that ad­dress­ing the out­bound flow of guns from the Unit­ed States is “a ser­vice to our con­stituents,” many of whom have ties to fam­i­ly and loved ones in the Caribbean, re­it­er­at­ing that pas­sage of the CATCH Act would give both state and fed­er­al gov­ern­ments much-need­ed in­for­ma­tion about gun traf­fick­ing in­to Caribbean coun­tries and an­ti-traf­fick­ing mea­sures.

They are al­so ask­ing Con­gress to take ad­di­tion­al steps by en­sur­ing that in­spec­tors at Amer­i­can ports are giv­en suf­fi­cient re­sources to in­spect ship­ments be­ing sent from the Unit­ed States to coun­tries in the Caribbean; en­sur­ing that the Bu­reau of Al­co­hol, To­bac­co, Firearms and Ex­plo­sives has suf­fi­cient fund­ing to in­spect fed­er­al firearms li­censees that are re­spon­si­ble for a dis­pro­por­tion­ate num­ber of firearms that are traced af­ter hav­ing been used in crimes in coun­tries in the Caribbean.

The at­tor­neys gen­er­al are re­quest­ing brief­in­gs from the Unit­ed States Postal Ser­vice, the De­part­ment of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty, and the De­part­ment of Jus­tice about their on­go­ing ef­forts to in­ter­dict ship­ments of guns from the Unit­ed States to coun­tries in the Caribbean, with a fo­cus on what ad­di­tion­al re­sources and le­gal tools they need to ac­com­plish this im­por­tant task.

“I am ap­pre­cia­tive of At­tor­ney Gen­er­al James on these lat­est ac­tions to stop gun traf­fick­ing from the US to Caribbean na­tions,” said US Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Adri­ano Es­pail­lat of Harlem, who in­tro­duced leg­is­la­tion in Con­gress to reau­tho­rize fund­ing for the Caribbean Basin Se­cu­ri­ty Ini­tia­tive (CB­SI), “which fur­ther strength­ens our ac­tions to com­bat crime and il­lic­it drug traf­fick­ing, while sup­port­ing peace and sta­bil­i­ty to the re­gion.

“I com­mend At­tor­ney Gen­er­al James and each of the at­tor­neys gen­er­al for their on­go­ing state-fed­er­al col­lab­o­ra­tion to stop the flow of gun traf­fick­ing be­tween our na­tions,” added the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic-born con­gress­man.

New York State Sen­a­tor, Zell­nor Y. Myrie, who traces his roots to Ja­maica, said “we’ve long known that firearms are be­ing traf­ficked around the US, flood­ing our com­mu­ni­ties with dead­ly weapons and putting our lives and safe­ty at risk.

“I’m proud to have writ­ten the na­tion’s first law to hold bad ac­tors in the gun in­dus­try li­able for reck­less con­duct that al­lows this sit­u­a­tion to oc­cur, and hon­ored to stand with our at­tor­ney gen­er­al as she leads the fight against gun traf­fick­ing from the US to Caribbean na­tions,” said the rep­re­sen­ta­tive for the 20th Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict in Brook­lyn, New York.

Myrie’s Sen­ate col­league, Rox­anne Per­saud, the Guyanese-born rep­re­sen­ta­tive for the 19th Sen­ate Dis­trict in Brook­lyn, said “we can­not turn a blind eye to the dev­as­tat­ing im­pact that gun traf­fick­ing from the Unit­ed States is hav­ing on our Caribbean neigh­bors, and it is our du­ty to take ac­tion.

“The CATCH Act is a cru­cial step to­ward im­ple­ment­ing ef­fec­tive mea­sures to com­bat this cri­sis. I thank At­tor­ney Gen­er­al James and the at­tor­neys gen­er­al for help­ing to pro­tect com­mu­ni­ties both here and abroad from the scourge of gun vi­o­lence.”

New York State As­sem­bly­mem­ber Phara Souf­frant For­rest, the Hait­ian-Amer­i­can rep­re­sen­ta­tive for the 57th As­sem­bly Dis­trict in Brook­lyn, said “the unchecked flow of il­le­gal guns from the Unit­ed States in­to the Caribbean is fu­el­ing vi­o­lence and desta­bi­liz­ing com­mu­ni­ties across the re­gion.

“Con­gress must act now to pass com­pre­hen­sive leg­is­la­tion to stop gun traf­fick­ing, and I ap­plaud At­tor­ney Gen­er­al James for her lead­er­ship on this is­sue. Our Caribbean neigh­bors de­serve safe­ty, sta­bil­i­ty and the abil­i­ty to thrive with­out the con­stant threat of gun vi­o­lence, which we know all too well here at home.

“By strength­en­ing en­force­ment, clos­ing loop­holes and pro­mot­ing re­gion­al co­op­er­a­tion, we can pro­tect lives on both sides of our bor­ders and build a safer fu­ture for all,” Souf­frant For­rest added.

NEW YORK, Sept 30, CMC