DPS chief urges Legislature not to toy with gun law

Department of Public Safety Commissioner James Deleon Guerrero has a strong message to the Legislature: Don’t toy around with the CNMI Weapons Control Act.

“Let’s not try to toy around and expand gun ownership in the process,” said Deleon Guerrero at a news briefing in his office last week.

Deleon Guerrero believes that the Weapons Control Act is one of the best pieces of legislation that the CNMI Legislature has ever come up.

“There is a reason why people don’t see too many gun-related incidents here in the Commonwealth. …There is a reason why people, when they commit robbery, they’re using knives, machetes and so forth as opposed to guns,” he said.

Rep. Christopher Leon Guerrero (Cov-Saipan) last month prefiled a bill that would, among other things, include U.S. lawful permanent residents or “green card” holders among those who will be allowed to obtain firearm identification cards in the CNMI.

Leon Guerrero’s bill also identifies the requirements for the issuance of a firearm dealer license under the Commonwealth Weapons Control Act.

Commissioner Deleon Guerrero said the issue of gun control is something that’s going on at a much wider scale than before. He said there is a serious national debate going on right now on gun control.

“We don’t get school shooting incidents here. Let’s not try to invite one,” he pointed out.

Deleon Guerrero said that one could argue that it is people who kill, not guns. “But let’s be realistic about this issue. Without easy access to weapons, then there will be fewer who can,” he said.

The commissioner said he supports arming more law enforcement officers, provided that there is a clear realization of the type of work that they do.

Deleon Guerrero’s opinion is that gun ownership beyond what is currently set by law would be an invitation to more gun-related violence here.

“We have some serious challenges and let’s be realistic about this. We don’t even have a forensic lab here in the CNMI,” he pointed out.

“I think it should just be kept that way,” he added, referring to the Weapons Control Act.

The Legislature, the commissioner said, should not look at making the law stiffer while at the same time opening up a different door for expanded gun ownership.

Deleon Guerrero suggested that the Legislature should instead help them more in terms of ensuring, for example, that the CNMI or DPS be allowed to deposit DNA material, fingerprint records and the likes to the combined offender DNA index system with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

On the issue that the Office of the Attorney General has been dismissing charges related to handgun possessions, the commissioner noted that is the reason why they asked the Legislature to look at this in a different sense by making it a crime to possess a handgun in the commission of a felony or possession of a handgun by a convicted felon, whichever or both.