Attorney General Anil Nandlall SC says the sale of tasers at commercial establishments in Guyana, if it is taking place without ministerial authority, would constitute an offence under the Firearms Act.
Nandlall said on his Facebook programme Issues in the News that a journalist had asked him about reports of tasers being sold locally. He did not identify a business or say that he had verified any sale.
In explaining his view of the law, the Attorney General pointed to Section 32 of the Firearms Act. That section prohibits a person, without the minister’s authority, from manufacturing, selling, transferring, purchasing, acquiring or possessing certain weapons. Among them is a weapon designed or adapted to discharge a “noxious liquid, gas or other thing”. Nandlall argued that an electrical discharge from a taser falls within the provision.
He also cited the 2021 amendment to the Police Act, which expressly included tasers and stun guns among the less lethal weapons available for police use. In Nandlall’s view, the provision allowing police to use them did not give members of the public authority to possess or sell them.
Nandlall referred to an English court decision interpreting similar wording in the United Kingdom’s firearms law as support for his position. Whether a particular device offered for sale in Guyana falls within Section 32 would ultimately depend on the device and the application of Guyanese law.
The Attorney General warned that offences under the provision carry fines and imprisonment. He did not say that the police had investigated the reported sales or that anyone had been charged.
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