In Costa Rica, “you can go to a gun store and buy 45,000 shots (ammunition) and there will be no problem, they will give them to you,” commented the minister of Safety, Gustavo Mata, on the program Our Voice this Monday.
To confront this fault in regulation, the Minister of Public Safety is working on a draft bill that limits the quantity of bullets that a person can buy at one time, with the objective of reducing their movement to the black market and smuggling to Panama, acknowledges Mata.
Currently, the only requirement to buy ammunition in the 30 licensed premises in Costa Rica is to be 18 years old. In the last 10 years, 93 million bullets have been imported, as it came out last Sunday in a publication by the Daily Extra.
“Nobody could be unrealistic to think that all of this is spent on (firing) ranges,” added the leader.
The entry of ammunition to the country has also occurred via smuggling, acknowledges the Vice Minister of the Treasury, Fernando Rodríguez.
Deadly weapons (official figures)
- Firearms are used in 98% of homicides.
- In 90% of robberies and assaults firearms are used.
- There are 240,000 registered firearms.
- 8 registered importers and 30 licensed premises exist that sell ammunition.
- Current law does not restrict the quantity of ammunition that one can buy.
Source: ameliarueda.com