Silencing the Guns

By: Mark B. Dumbar >dmark@ame.edu.lr

 MONROVIA-The Government of Liberia through the Small Arms Commission of Liberia has officially announced the silence of guns with the launching of the African Union and Amnesty of the Month in September.

Speaking during the regular Thursday press briefing at the Ministry of Information Cultural Affairs and Tourism on August 11, 2022, the Chairman of the Liberia Commission Atty. Teklo Maxwell Grigsby disclosed that the program is expected to take place on Tuesday, August 16, 2022 in Monrovia.

According to him, in 2017 the United Nations has been providing support to countries around Africa, to initiate Silencing the Guns.

Chairman Grigsby narrated that silencing guns is an initiative where member states will organize different activities to talk to friends in the media, people in the security sector, and students about the need to silence guns in the country.

“We have a very ugly situation under the CDC government where officers have been misusing the guns in public places in Liberia, he noted”.

According to Grigsby, if you are the head of a security institution and an officer becomes negligent to the extent that they will recklessly use the weapon to injure or murder another person, then it is disheartened.

He noted, “No head of a security institution will celebrate such an incident”.

In addition, our officers are taught what we called the use of force, they are only allowed to use weapons when they are in serious danger.

He noted, “If you are in a dangerous situation that can allow you to escape without the use of a weapon then you can escape”.

Chairman Grigsby called on all security officers to be very watchful in handling issues with weapons, especially we are approaching the upcoming presidential and general elections in 2023.

“Our role is not to give people guns, but we have a single role to play in this country, which is to derive the policy on people that will pose weapon, he noted”.

According to him, the commission under the new regulation will be instituting a policy measure that will require all private militaries and individuals to have competent clearances behind their units.

He noted, “Our role is to set the policy and then our actors can implement”

He mentioned that we can allow their unit along to be clearing people and issuing weapons to individuals.

“If an officer is trained with Ak-47, he is not allowed to use a different weapon, except the weapon he was trained with”, he noted.