WASHINGTON, D.C., April 8, 2024 – The Hon. Ryan Pinder, Bahamas Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, and His Excellency Wendall Jones, Bahamas Ambassador to the United States, called on a number of Congressional Offices in D. C last week on Thursday and Friday.
Matters discussed included the Caribbean Arms Trafficking Causes Harm (CATCH) Act, legislation that would “help curb illicit arms trafficking from the United States to the Caribbean by requiring the Coordinator for Caribbean Firearms Prosecutions to report on the implementation of anti-firearm-trafficking provisions included in the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act,” U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who co-introduced the CATCH ACT, said in a March 25 news release on his Senate website.
In addition to Senator Murphy, the legislation was also co-introduced by Senator Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and U.S. Representatives Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.) and Joaquin Castro (D-Texas).
Attorney General Pinder and Ambassador Jones impressed upon the staff of the congressional representatives the worrying number of illegal firearms that end up in The Bahamas and other Caribbean nations where murder rates are on the increase.
Some 90 percent of murder weapons confiscated by Bahamian authorities can be traced back to the United States, and Prime Minister Philip E. Davis has repeatedly called for a crackdown on smuggling of weapons from the United States.
Senator Murphy noted on his website that “Illicit arms trafficking from the United States to the Caribbean is a regional and national security threat,” adding, “While Caribbean countries do not manufacture firearms or ammunition or import either on a large scale, they account for half of the world’s top ten highest national murder rates.”
“Law enforcement officials in the Caribbean have identified Florida as a significant source of the illicit firearms that are exacerbating crime in their countries,” Senator Murphy said. “In Haiti, the steady flow of illicit firearms from the United States has enabled violent gangs to take control over 80% of Port-au-Prince and caused a dramatic increase in migration to the United States.”
.“I am extremely concerned with the deteriorating security situation in Haiti and high rates of violence elsewhere in the Caribbean. The prevalence of illegal guns trafficked from the United States into the region is fueling this violence. The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act made firearms trafficking a federal crime for the first time, and this legislation would ensure the newly established Coordinator for Caribbean Firearms Prosecutions is implementing the law to its fullest extent,” said Murphy.
