What ban? Dominicans bought US$40.3M worth of guns in 7 years

Santo Domingo.- Dominican Republic bought US$40.3 millionworth of guns and ammo (nearly RD$1.9 billion) during the past seven years,which reveals a toothless executive order issued 10 years ago which sought toban their import outright.

Adding to the morass is a lack of official records on compliancewith the ban on imports, except for a few details on guns bought abroad from2009-2015 provided by the National Statistics Office (ONE).

Outlet Listin Diario reports that 2013 topped gun purchasesduring the last seven years with US$7.8 million (RD$357 million), with Brazilleading sales at US$5.3 million.

The Dominican Republic buys the most guns from the UnitedStates, followed by Brazil, Russia, China and, to a lesser extent, Turkey,Belgium, Spain, Italy, Israel, Germany, Canada, Japan, France, Switzerland,Czech Republic, Austria, Argentina, El Salvador, United Kingdom, Mexico, Chileand Peru.

The country banned gun and ammo imports ib executive order 309-06issued July 24, 2006, during Leonel Fernandez’s presidency.