Leslie, Glaister. 2010 ‘Weapons Storage, Management, and Destruction by Security Forces.’ Confronting the Don: The Political Economy of Gang Violence in Jamaica; Occasional Paper No. 26, p. 38. Geneva: Small Arms Survey, the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva. 3 November

Relevant contents

Weapons Storage, Management, and Destruction by Security Forces

The JCF [Jamaica Constabulary Force], until recently, had no formal process for periodically disposing of seized illegal weapons, weapons left by residents for safe-keeping that were never recollected, or defective security force weaponry.

The destruction of weapons was therefore an infrequent process. Since 2009, a dedicated firearm destruction team has been in charge of this, however, and between 2009 and the first quarter of 2010 the JCF destroyed more than 6,000 weapons. …

As part of the weapons destruction process, a government team collates all stored weapons in each of the 19 divisional headquarters across the island, as well as in the smaller police stations. Officials then collect these weapons on the day of their destruction and bring them to a gun-crunching machine, which cuts each weapon into small pieces. A local company then melts down these pieces.

The JCF also disposes of ammunition that it has seized, in an undisclosed process.

Last accessed at:
http://www.smallarmssurvey.org