Firearm Ownership

Agreed.
And I must say this new administration is certainly kicking ass and taking names.

It's a start, let's hope it works.  Slowly but surely is how to do it.

Not even retired Federal and local law enforcement
officials from the United States?

Cristo Rey was chosen as a pilot plan to carry out disarmament of the population in the National District

https://www.diariolibre.com/actualidad/ … CM26080442

The Cristo Rey sector , of the National District, was chosen as the pilot of the Dominican capital to execute the Citizen Security Plan that the Government will undertake, which plans to voluntarily surrender firearms.

The data was revealed when the Minister of the Interior and Police, Jesús Vásquez Martínez (Chú), presented the Comprehensive Strategy for Citizen Security "My Safe Country" to representatives of more than 70 community, sports, cultural and religious organizations in said neighborhood.

In addition to Cristo Rey, Barahona, Puerto Plata, San Francisco de Macorís, Santo Domingo Este and Santiago are part of this pilot plan . The date the show will begin has yet to be revealed.


Apparently to start later next week (16th was mentioned in the press before). This is going to be interesting and firstly anybody who has not renewed in the areas mentioned will be visited I guess. And any known delincuents too plus those known to carry guns by the police information network.

85% of people who are shot in the DR are with illegal firearms

https://www.diariolibre.com/actualidad/ … CE26224125

Jesús Vásquez Martínez, Minister of the Interior, warned that whoever has a weapon and does not register it will be considered illegal

The Minister of the Interior and Police, Jesús Vásquez Martínez, declared this Thursday when serving as prime minister invited by the Senate of the Republic that, in that agency there are 238 thousand registered firearms and that in the last seven years only 50% of those citizens have renewed their gun license.

"Every year, fifty thousand people renew their firearm license. In the Dominican Republic, according to the Citizen Security Observatory, 85% of the people who are hit are with unregistered firearms," ​​explained Vásquez Martínez.

He argued that when people talk about disarming the population, they talk about attacking those illegal weapons that are used to impact human beings.

He said that it is those weapons that they want to recover and destroy so that they do not return to the streets.

"We are clear that those weapons that are in the hands of the population, illegal ... illegitimate have to be recovered," said the official.

He warned that whoever has a weapon and does not register it and pay taxes will be considered an illegal weapon, for which he urged the population to update.

I hope any expat on this forum will have already renewed their licences of registered guns and so not find themselves cast as illegal gun owners when the process of license verification starts in some SD districts, Santiago, SFM, Barahona and Puerto Plata next week. I believe the penalty can be 3 years detention for having an illegal firearm and confiscation.

This Minister of Interior and Police is serious.

What is most interesting is that statistic of 85% of all shootings being done with ILLEGAL firearms.  That's not surprising, because similar statistics occur all throughout the world.

In the US, for example, nearly ALL shootings by criminals are -- guess what? -- done using stolen (and thus by definition illegal") firearms.  Criminals DO NOT -- despite newspaper articles and politicians' claims to the contrary -- obtain their weapons through legal means.   
>> Criminals don't obtain their firearms through "the gun show loophole," because such a loophole doesn't actually exist.  Anyone that buys a firearm at a gun show from a dealer (probably 99% of gun show sales) MUST pass the same FBI background check that a person that shows up at a gun store must pass.  NO EXCEPTIONS, IN ANY US STATE!!
>> It is true that private sellers in most states are not required to use the FBI background check system.  Nor does Federal law require such background checks for private buyers anywhere, under current laws.  However, some states do have that requirement, as a state law (though such laws have no discernible impact on improving crime rates; in fact, it is usually just the opposite.  For example, in Illinois -- just ask the residents of Chicago!). 
>> The thing is...criminals STILL do not obtain firearms from law-abiding citizens, even without a background check.  Why not?  Because doing so leaves an evidentiary trail and witnesses that can come back to convict the criminal later.  And most private firearm owners insist on having a copy of the purchaser's Driver's License...which criminals are not going to want to do.
>> So, criminals by far prefer to purchase stolen guns on the street, even if the pricing is 3-5 times higher than in a store.   I'm sure that is even truer in the Dominican Republic than it is in the US or other Developed nations. 
>> Now, there are some rare individuals that actually buy a firearm, then pass it on to extremely suspect individuals in other states where such transactions are forbidden.  But those aren't LEGAL transactions; the buyers-to-sellers are quite clearly engaging in criminal enterprises...making them CRIMINALS.   For example, in the news recently were three Army soldiers in Kentucky, I believe, who were buying guns legally in Kentucky, then transporting those weapons to Detroit and Chicago to sell to known gang members at exorbitant prices.  Those soldiers chose to engage in criminal commerce...so lock them up and throw away the key!!

A good example of how rare such transactions are, was the Fast & Furious sting operation the ATF ran under the Obama Administration (the F&F op actually started under the Bush administration, but Obama took it over, widened it dramatically and changed the focus...so it was really an entirely new stunt). 
>> The idea was to ALLOW sales of firearms, mainly in Texas and Arizona, to known felons and potential arms traffickers who couldn't legally buy a firearm anyway, even after the FBI background check flagged them as unlawful buyers.  The ATF intervened and required the gun store go ahead and close the sale, on the presumption those firearms could be traced and used to foil future crimes. 
>> Those ALREADY ILLEGAL firearms were then to be trafficked and tracked (through unstated means) through illegal channels and surface in Mexico, in particular.
>> Why do F&F?  The Obama administration claimed for months that there were numerous cases of firearms purchased illegally in the United States, but then being smuggled illegally into Mexico and sold to the cartels or other criminals.
>> The Obama Administration was making these claims...BUT COULD PRODUCE NO PROOF OF THEM!!   And thus was getting no traction on passing new gun control laws.
>> Most neutral observers believe that the Obama Admin was trying to "create" the evidence they had been citing for many months. 
>> And boy, did they ever!!!  Several of these F&F weapons were later taken into custody by Mexican or US authorities, after the weapons had been used to attack, wound and sometimes kill people during the commission of crimes in Mexico or, some times, right at the US border.  (This is how Border Patrol Agent Randall Terry was killed by one of the F&F weapons.) 
>> Once several of these events came to light...and a still-unknown whistleblower identified them as F&F firearms...the Obama Administration quietly dropped the mantra that US-purchased firearms were the primary feeder for illegal firearms in Mexico. Because, you know, IT JUST WASN'T TRUE!!! 

A side-note here:   Anyone with ANY knowledge of the cartels know they generally don't buy weapons from the US in ones or twos.  They don't need to, nor want to. 
>>  The cartels buy their firearms -- cases upon cases of full-auto M16s or M4s  (of non-US-origin, since these have been manufactured around the world for decades now) or full-auto AK47s or many other similar weapons from multiple nations -- by the thousands, on the black market. 
>>The cartels DON'T WANT SEMI-auto firearms (such as AR15s), they want the full-auto versions. 
>>  Again, proving the point that criminals rarely try to buy legal firearms through legal channels...at least in the USA, because our gun control laws are problematic and an unnecessary risk.  Instead, they procure their firearms through the international black market,  or other means. 

Getting back to the DR:  Another factor that is extremely interesting here is that the DR government is STRESSING that it is the ILLEGAL guns that it is after.  NOT the legal guns!!!
>> The article isn't clear on this point...but it certainly suggests the 15% of all shootings that occur with LEGAL firearms...are legitimate cases of self-defense!!   Accordingly, those are events where violent crimes were PREVENTED by a private citizen.
>> Which suggests logical, if not political, agreement with a point I've made before...
>> That would be:  if you (or the DR) want violent crime statistics to go DOWN, make it far easier for law-abiding citizens to own firearms for self-defense.  Sure, require a legal process and background checks, if you feel the need.  BUT, at the same time, there's a lot of ways the government could ease the bureaucratic hurdles and lower the costs of firearms ownership in the DR. 
>>  If you want the violent crime stats to decrease even further, authorize concealed carry permits. In my once-home state of Colorado, crimes against citizens on public streets dropped dramatically when concealed carry was permitted.  Coincidence?  Not at all.  Later interviews with criminals in prison revealed that criminals DEFINITELY ceased a lot of their criminal activities...because they suddenly perceived they could pay a very high price for such acts.  So, they moved on to other, less violent actions, such as daytime home robberies when no one was at home...a lot of which were captured on hidden home surveillance cameras, which led to criminals being tried, convicted and placed into prison...where they no longer are threatening law-abiding citizens.

Now, all of the DR's firearms laws are completely up to the DR and its citizens.  Expats don't get a vote.  I'm not trying to change the DR's laws. 
>> But, that doesn't change the factual statistics experienced in many nations and US States:  more armed citizens = less violent crime, and fewer crimes using firearms.   It also results in lower victim-of-violent-crime rates among the law-abiding, albeit at the cost of slightly higher injury rates among the criminal class.  However, my sympathy for the criminal class is extremely limited.

Why am I writing all this?  I'm hoping that someone in the DR is mining the factual statistics that are available, and incorporating those statistics into their future laws and rules. 

I have no beef at all with the DR focusing on ILLEGAL and ILLEGALLY-owned firearms, of any type.  Because it is criminals that are holding such weapons, NOT law-abiding citizens or residents of the DR.
>> And I'm skeptical that citizens that have gone through the DR's rigorous and expensive approval process in order to legally own a firearm, would then simply ignore the renewal requirements.   
>> I'm even more skeptical that expats with hard-gained, expensive and easily-canceled residency approvals, would risk their resident status by holding illegal firearms.  It just isn't worth the risk. 
>> Thus, I'm skeptical that any expats are actually holding any illegal firearms.  Period.

THE BOTTOM LINE:  The DR is ABSOLUTELY doing the right thing by cracking down on ILLEGAL weapons.  I cheer them on in doing so!!! 
>> At the same time, I pray DR authorities are wise enough to leave LEGAL weapons alone.
>> In my wildest dreams, I do hope that the DR will expand access to LEGAL weapons for law-abiding citizens and legal residents (expats) of the DR.  Why?  To reduce crime and especially violent-crime, rates.    But, I'm not about to hold my breath until that happens. 

IMHO,

Jim
ExpatRusher

Guns and Permits in Dominican Republic are priced so the average citizen can't afford them. The guns they offer for sale are also old and not very good. For every 1 legal gun, there are 3 illegal guns there. Not only gangsters have guns regular people have illegal guns too to protect their family from gangsters. Similar to Jamaica and Colombia they keep guns away from regular citizens because they worry about uprisings towards their corrupt governments.