Cuba gives its citizens 2 months to register guns

Posted on Monday, 02.01.10
Cuba gives its citizens 2 months to register guns
By WILL WEISSERT
Associated Press Writer

HAVANA -- Cuba has declared a two-month amnesty for citizens to register
unlicensed guns, and says those passing aptitude and psychological tests
will be allowed to keep their weapons.

The move is unusual in a state where almost no one except some active
military personnel and plain-clothed state security agents are allowed
to possess weapons.

Even most police officers are required to leave their pistols at the
station or in a regional barracks when on vacation or leave, and young
men participating in mandatory military service are given unloaded
firearms for most exercises.

Starting Feb. 12, Cubans will have the "exceptional and one-time only"
chance to register their guns with police, and will be allowed to keep
them provided they are over 18 and have passed the proper tests
administered at police stations.

There was no explanation for why the drive to legalize unlicensed
weapons is coming now, though the state-run news agency Prensa Latina
said the move grew out of a November 2008 law regulating possession of
guns and ammunition.

According to a weekend bulletin carried by state news media, gun owners
must "maintain conduct consistent with the appropriate norms of social
behavior, meet security and protection conditions for the firearms and
pay established taxes."

Cubans were encouraged to register any weapons they owned in the years
after Fidel Castro and his band of rebels toppled dictator Fulgencio
Batista on Jan. 1, 1959. But later authorities used a list of those who
had sought licenses to go door-to-door and encourage them to turn over
their firearms - even antiques considered family heirlooms.

While Cuba is among the safest countries in the hemisphere, it is not
unusual to find firearms in Cuban homes, though most are weapons
improvised from household materials or guns that were smuggled into the
country and bought on the black market.

The call to register arms is for Cubans civilians, and the bulletin
stated that "security and protection agents, detectives and bodyguards
will be summoned by the Ministry of the Interior" for an independent
licensing process.

Cuba gives its citizens 2 months to register guns - World AP -
MiamiHerald.com (1 February 2010)
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/world/AP/story/1457169.html