Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Stu­art Young in­tends to bring a pol­i­cy to Cab­i­net on harsh­er penal­ties for re­peat gun of­fend­ers.

He made the an­nounce­ment at yes­ter­day’s post-Cab­i­net me­dia brief­ing at the Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre, St Ann’s, in re­sponse to a ques­tion on whether he in­tends to take harsh­er mea­sures against re­peat­ed gun of­fend­ers.

“I am in­tend­ing to bring leg­is­la­tion pol­i­cy to Cab­i­net to agree to the in­crease in fines, penal­ties and sen­tenc­ing to re­peat­ed firearm of­fend­ers. So that is one way I in­tend to deal with it. It may be sub­ject to Cab­i­net.”

He said a first-time of­fend­er would be li­able to face a fine and sen­tence and if you are charged by po­lice a sec­ond time around you could ex­pect the fine and sen­tenc­ing “to go up sub­stan­tial­ly.”

The third time, Young said, would be a “strik­ing out” sit­u­a­tion with high­er fines and pos­si­ble im­pris­on­ment for the re­peat of­fend­er. “That would act as a de­ter­rent,” he said, adding one of the is­sues his min­istry has been ex­pe­ri­enc­ing was that very of­ten in­di­vid­u­als who are caught with il­le­gal weapons do not plead guilty in court be­cause some mag­is­trates may im­pose a high fine or sen­tence, while oth­ers may not.

Young promised to use this law to his ad­van­tage to de­ter peo­ple at all cost from us­ing il­le­gal weapons.

Asked if Gov­ern­ment would move to es­tab­lish a gun court, Young said any court can deal with firearm mat­ters.