Co-Minister of Interior Sar Kheng on Thursday urged the cancellation of all weapon licenses issued by the government while calling for stricter guidelines on which security force members can carry firearms.
Sar Kheng said gun licenses have been issued illegally by corrupt officials and weapons proliferate among government agents who do not depend on them to fulfill their assigned tasks.
“We will not allow [officials] to have a gun if it is unsuitable for their duty,” Sar Kheng said at the first meeting of a new inter-ministry weapons control committee. “There will be bad results if we do not implement [gun] control well.
“We should continue to annul the validity of gun licenses. Otherwise, this means that the licenses issued by incompetent officials will keep going on, and we still will not control weapons,” he said.
Sar Kheng’s suggestions follow claims he made last month that unscrupulous police and soldiers were continuing to issue firearm licenses to civilians. He cited the military police, the bodyguard unit and RCAF’s elite Brigade 70 as agencies that continue to issue firearms licenses to civilians, despite the 1999 nationwide weapons ban.
Thursday’s meeting was attended by a host of senior government officials, including co-Minister of Defense Tea Banh, Minister of Cabinet Sok An and Hok Lundy, director general of the National Police.
Interior Ministry Secretary of State Em Sam An told the committee that police have recovered almost 100,000 unregistered weapons. Most of the weapons, however, were turned in voluntarily by their owners, while persons in positions of power have ignored the ban and are holding on to their weapons, he said. “Guns were taken from common people who respected the law. But, hard-liners hid their guns such as [members of] the armed forces, government officials and okhnas,” said Em Sam An, who agreed that stricter measures are needed to limit the number of officials who carried weapons.
