Peter Bunting, Former National Security Minister - Gleaner photo
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Ernest Smith, the attorney for the man granted the gun permit, and Peter Bunting
Peter Bunting, Opposition member and former Minister of National Security, has maintained that Former National Security Minister Robert Montague erred in granting a firearm licence to a man known as "Mr A", after his application was denied by the Firearm Licensing Authority (FLA).
Mr. Bunting, who spoke on RJR's call-in programme, Hotline, on Thursday, insisted that other provisions should have been made by Mr. Montague if the subject became an informant for the authorities.
"If you feel that their life is threatened, again, the law provides for them to go into the witness protection programme. You don't start issuing licensed firearms to all the informants out there because you'd be literally putting licensed firearms in the hands of criminals," he asserted.
Furthermore, Mr. Bunting suggested that such a matter is an "operational-type decision" and should not have been made a minister.
He insisted that while he had challenged several findings of the FLA during his own tenure as minister, he did not use his ministerial powers to issue firearm licences to persons with adverse findings.
Nothing untoward
Meanwhile, the attorney for the man whose firearm licence was reinstated by Mr. Montague, is rejecting suggestions that there was anything untoward in the process.
Controversy has been intensifying since the revelation was made that Mr. Montague approved the granting of the licence after the FLA raised the red flag.
However, Attorney Ernest Smith, said even after being called to attend a review hearing by Mr. Montague and a panel, he had to work hard to make his case.
Smith, who was also speaking on RJR's Hotline on Thursday afternoon, said he left the hearing with no assurance the licence would have been reinstated.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness on Wednesday said he believes all cases of persons being granted gun permits after their applications to the FLA were rejected, should be reviewed.
This followed calls by the Parliamentary Opposition and a former FLA chairman for an audit of the 29 cases in which Mr. Montague overruled the decision of the board of the agency to reject applications for gun permits.
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