No gun licence for
former prosecutor
PHILIPSBURG--Former prosecutor Johan de Vrieze is not allowed to carry a firearm. That is the opinion of the Court of First Instance in the so-called LAR administrative procedure launched against the Lt. Governor’s decision in his capacity of Local Chief of Police to turn down De Vrieze’s request for a licence.
The ex-prosecutor had told the Court he needed a gun to protect himself and his family against vengeful criminals he had helped put behind bars. De Vrieze was a prosecutor in St. Maarten for five years. During this period he was entitled to carry a gun, but after he left the service he lost this right.
Based on stipulations in the Firearms Ordinance of 1930, the Cabinet of the Lt. Governor had turned down De Vrieze’s request to obtain a licence for his 9mm Glock 17 firearm. De Vrieze had filed a lawsuit against this decision, which was handled by the Court of First Instance on October 7.
Attorney-at-law Jeroen Veen had claimed that his client De Vrieze, a trained marksman and former sharpshooter with the Rotterdam Police in the Netherlands for many years, should have received a licence.
Some 250 gun licences are issued yearly by the Cabinet of the Lt. Governor. These licences have to be renewed every year. Most licences are issued to (extraordinary) police officers and former ministers and state secretaries of Justice.
There has been a “restrictive” policy concerning the issuance of gun licences since 2000, explained Lt. Governor Franklyn Richards, who was heard as a witness. He said that in principle no new gun licences were being issued, but old licences were being renewed annually after a so-called “marginal review,” including an investigation into a possible criminal record of the licence-holder.
The Court stated that the Lt. Governor’s decision not to grant De Vrieze a licence had been in line with the official policy. It further said that it could not be established that the ex-prosecutor had been the victim of unequal treatment either.
Gun licences may also be granted to people who have been seriously threatened by other persons. However, according to Judge Joop Drop, it could not be proven that De Vrieze had indeed been seriously threatened by former convicts. Such incidents had not been reported to the police, according to the judge.
De Vrieze had bought the gun in Curaçao early 2006 as part of a purchase of 12 similar weapons for the Voluntary Corps of St. Maarten VKS. The guns were ordered by the VKS, but it was not specifically stated that one of these weapons was not meant for this organisation, but for De Vrieze instead.
According to the Lt. Governor’s legal representative attorney-at-law Richard Gibson Jr., De Vrieze had “misused” his position as a prosecutor to obtain the gun outside of “official channels.”
The judge did not go that far, but agreed that the ex-prosecutor had been “negligent” in not requesting a separate consent for the import of his firearm, and for that reason also his appeal should not be admitted.
