Top general’s statement on crime boosts gun merchants

Santo Domingo.- Gun merchants got a boost Tuesday with Defense minister Sigfrido Pared’s “on target and timely" assertion that 98 percent of crimes in the country are committed with illegal weapons.

"That forces the lifting of the ban that prevents us from importing that type of artifact," said the Dominican Republic Weapons Importers Association, just one day after Pared’s statement.

"Decree 309-06, which forbade weapons imports, has created a huge black market, because there’s no control or supervision whatsoever right now,” it said, noting that "we therefore support admiral Sigfrido Pared’s statements, so the Executive Branch lifts that measure."

"Dominican society has been exposed to an increasing gun trafficking since 2006 because it isn’t necessary to undergo any procedure for a weapon to change hands, unlike what was happening before the Decree," the gun merchants said.