The Minister for the Interior, Ambrose Dery, says the Ghana Police Service will soon open a firing range to train licensed firearm holders.
He added that unlicensed firearm holders who are identified will be arrested to deter others.
“I want to thank the public, the public has greater confidence in the police now, and they are collaborating by giving information to get to the bottom of those things”.
“You do know that we have started registration of arms even for the security agencies, we have done it for the police, we have done it for immigration, we continue to do that”.
“The police are very soon going to open a shooting range where they will train all those given permission. Those who have not been given permission would be dealt with according to law,” he said.
The minister made this statement on August 1, 2023, while commending the police for arresting the suspected robbers who attacked a bullion van at Ablekuma and killed an officer on June 22, 2023.
Related: Fourth Suspect In Ablekuma Bullion Van Robbery Arrested
In a related development, the Deputy Director of the National Commission on Small Arms and Light Weapons, Gyebi Asante, in an interview recently monitored by The Ghana Report on TV3, said most firearms are being pushed from other countries to Ghana through the weaker borders.
He explained that most of the unlicensed firearm holders are being sponsored.
“You see the kind of weapons our youth are using; you wonder where these weapons are coming from. You realize that, especially in the North where we have some of these conflicts, they are close to the borders and looking at how porous our borders are, that is how some of these sophisticated weapons manage to get into the country,” he said.
He added, “What we realized is that these weapons are not weapons that these young guys buy themselves”.
“We realized that with some of the conflict, it looks like we have some conflict entrepreneurs. We have some people who are in this conflict because of some interest that they have “.
How soon is the soon?
We are now in November, and next year will be the election year. I don’t think that will be the best time to set the range up. You will not have time to do so.
Thanks.