The Ministry of the Interior has relaxed its earlier decision to suspend all firearm licences, giving licensed gun owners until December 31, 2026, to comply with new licensing requirements.

Speaking before the Assurances Committee on Tuesday, July 7, the Minister for the Interior, Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak, said existing permit holders can continue to legally possess their firearms until the end of the year, after which they will be required to satisfy stricter conditions before their licences are renewed.

Under the new regime, applicants seeking to renew firearm permits will be required to undergo mandatory firearms training, mental health assessments and drug screening.

I think that yesterday (Monday) we took a decision for the CID to send message to all legitimate permit holders to keep it to December. Those who are in the process will continue the process; you will go through the vigorous one, the Minister said.

I am hoping that by now people should have started receiving the messages to tell them to keep it until December 31, knowing that after that you will go through the new arrangement where you will do the mental test, drug test and the training, he added.

Mr. Muntaka explained that the government decided to extend the deadline in light of the devastating June 29 floods, which affected seven regions and displaced thousands of people.

He said it would be unreasonable to require affected citizens to immediately comply with the new registration requirements while they continue to recover from the disaster.

Initially we sent the message and we had this flood that has affected seven regions. We are rational human beings, people are going through a lot of challenges and trauma, he stated.

Based on the data that we have, over 100,000 people are having this challenge and if you look at the areas, these are people that have gone through all this trauma. It will not be fair adding to their challenges the issue of registration, the Minister said.

The extension means current firearm licence holders have until the end of December to renew their permits under the revised framework, which the government says is intended to strengthen firearm regulation through enhanced screening and training requirements.

Source: 3news