Chote: Trinidad and Tobago Constitution gives no right to bear arms

Sophia Chote, SC, president of the Law Association (LATT), has agreed with former acting commissioner of police Stephen Williams that the Trinidad and Tobago Constitution does not give citizens the right to bear arms.

Williams was responding to statements by current acting CoP Gary Griffith that citizens had a legal right to own a firearm by applying for an FUL under the Firearms Act.

Speaking on I95.5 FM Radio on Wednesday, Chote said, “Citizens do not have the right to bear arms. We are able to obtain firearms if we comply with the licensing pre-conditions contained in the Firearms Act and whatever other regulations the commissioner may require of an applicant.

“If we had a right to bear arms, then we would not have had a Firearms Act that says you have to get a licence and that you have to essentially qualify to be a licensed firearm user. There is no absolute right. For example, in the Constitution of TT, we have the right to liberty, to the security of the person and of property. The right to bear arms is not included in our Constitution – never has been and I don’t know where that is coming from.”

Chote said at the time the American constitution was drawn up, the country was in a social and political situation where the drafters felt it was necessary to add the clause about having the right to bear arms.

“They were still settling the country in some areas and that kind of thing, and there were disputes about who put down stakes for land, and disputes between the north and the south, etc.

"We don’t have that in our more modern constitution. So I don’t think there can be any sort of analogy properly and legally drawn between the American right to bear arms and what is contained in our Constitution and legislation which covers the issuance of FULs.”

She questioned Griffith’s statement that there were 37,000 illegal firearms in TT.

“I don’t know where that number came from, and I find it odd that if there were a number, it would be a round number. How was that audited? Where did that come in? Has this number gone down or up from last year to this year, since we have been in a pandemic, under an state of emergency with a curfew – or is that just a number which was thrown out?

"I am not prepared to accept any statistic without some sort of background information to it.”

Chote said she would be disappointed if TT and the Caribbean were to make it legal for people to have the right to bear arms in a similar manner to the US.

“We see what has been the fallout of the right to bear arms in the US: they have mass shootings at schools, they have a huge number of crimes when you compare the US to other countries where you don’t have the right to bear arms.

"So the right to bear arms hasn’t brought them the kind of protections they initially thought that it would.”

The US Constitution Second Amendment says: "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." Some US commentators says this refers to individual ownership, while others say it simply allows a citizen militia.

The TT Constitution protects certain rights, such as life, liberty, security and enjoyment of property and freedoms such as movement, conscience and religious belief, with no reference to weapons.