By the A.M.
Costa Rica staff
The deputies of the Special
Permanent Commission of Women of the
Legislative Assembly, unanimously
approved the # 20947 named Reform to
Articles 4 and 5 of the Law against
Domestic Violence.
According to file # 20947, the
reform of the law aims to protect
victims of domestic violence when a
firearm is involved. It allows
removal of the weapon which will
remain in the custody of the
judicial authorities until there is
a final resolution, either for its
return to the owner or confiscation.
Deputy Ivonne Acuña said, "Reform is
necessary because those who suffer
violence from their partners feel a
great fear with the simple fact of
knowing that there is a firearm, so
the external according to some
testimonies that they shared
unanimously."
The new law also dictates that it is
the duty of the Supreme Court of
Justice to keep a record of the
names and information of the person
against whom precautionary measures
of protection have been imposed.
This database must be confidential
and be consulted only by the judge.
The new law also provides that the
person suspected of committing
domestic violence may request the
early lifting of the imposed measure
and a judge will assess that
request.
According to the Special Permanent
Commission of Women, of the
Legislative Assembly, domestic
violence and femicides have
increased considerably, so
additional measures are sought to
help neutralize this social
epidemic.
The current text of the Law against
Domestic Violence, in Spanish, can
be accessed at sipi.siteal.iipe.unesco.org
here.
Currently, the deputies in the
legislative assembly are working on
the analysis of the weapons law.
As reported by A.M.
Costa Rica on February 25, deputies
of the Special Commission on
Security and Narco-trafficking, who
are in charge of analyzing bill
#20.508 on the Weapons and
Explosives Law, approved
motion to eliminate subsection K of
article #25 of that bill.
Subsection K specifically
prohibits people from carrying some
semi-automatic weapons like the AK47
and AR15.
In his reaction to the elimination
of that subsection, Michael Soto,
Minister of Security, said this
error should be corrected.
"We are very surprised by this
news. I believe that this is a
mistake in a country like Costa Rica
that we say is a peaceful country,"
said Minister Soto.
Subsection K of chapter #25 says
that the following weapons are
prohibited, "any long weapon or any
type of revolver or pistol using the
calibers: 0.23- 5.56- 5.7x28 - 7 -
7.62x25 - 7.62x39 - 7.62x51 -
7.62x57 except for those weapons
registered and used for the practice
of sports duly accredited."
Those calibers are used in assault
semiautomatics arms type AK and
AR15. The bill wants these weapons
to be banned since the law currently
allows individuals to own weapons
type AK and AR15.
The elimination of subsection K
was approved by five votes in favor
from deputies Zoila Rosa Volio, Otto
Roberto Vargas, David Gourzong,
Roberto Thompson and Gustavo Viales.
The four votes against the
elimination were from deputies
Carolina Hidalgo, Enrique Sanchez,
Harllan Hopelman and Marulin
Azofeifa.
The b
ill #20.508 was presented by
the Ministry of Security in order to
control crime. "This initiative was
done analyzing the need to control
crime problems and the incidence of
homicides. In this project what we
have tried is to implement controls,
because we believe that the controls
will help us in these two issues.
The firearms produced 68 percent of
the homicides," said Minister Soto.
With regard to the section of the
bill that would prohibit people with
a police record from possessing
semi-automatic weapons such as the
AK47 or AR15, the deputies also had
eliminated that section.
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A.M.
Costa Rica wire
services photo
The
reform of the law aims
to protect victims of
domestic violence when
a firearm is involved.
With
that action, they
indirectly allowed
people with police
records to obtain these
weapons. However, after
a deeper analysis of
that motion, the
deputies went back and
the bill was approved.
According to the
statement issued by
the Legislative
Assembly, the deputies
approved the following
items:
- People with a
criminal record cannot
carry weapons.
- It is prohibited
for people to enter
places of medical
services or
educational services
carrying a weapon.
- In the event that
a security company
closes its operations,
representatives should
send all firearms,
ammunition, loaders,
and other items to the
Security Ministry for
custody within six
months. Failure to do
so could mean a
sentence of from one
to three years in
prison.
- With regard to the
purchase of weapons by
civilians, the
transaction must be
formalized before a
notary. The seller
will report the sales
transaction to the
Department of Weapons
and Explosives of the
Ministry of Security.
The number of weapons
allowed by one person
was capped at three.
The deputies will
continue analyzing the
bill #20.508 presented
by the Ministry of
Security because there
are still many doubts
about the use of
semi-automatic
weapons.
According to the
current law, there is
no prohibition on the
sale of assault
weapons that use AK
and AR-15 platforms in
a semiautomatic
format. However, the
Ministry of Security
issued an
institutional
guideline in 2014 that
prohibited the sale of
these weapons and now
the Ministry wants the
guideline included in
the law.
"With regard to the
use of semi-automatic
weapons, the proposal
of paragraph K of
Article 25 of the
Weapons and Explosives
Law, what we intend is
that the spectrum of
control is much wider.
There are
semi-automatic weapons
that are from the
AK47and AR15
platforms, those are
military-type
structure, those have
different calibers,
the ones that we
include are the most
representative, we
want to include in the
law these calibers to
control that spectrum
of possibilities
because now this type
of weapons could be
registered by any
citizen," said
Minister Soto.
Although the
Commission approved
that individual
ownership of up to
three weapons,
Minister Soto said
that they will
continue to request
that the deputies
reduce the number to
one weapon per person.
"We must stay in that
position, it must be
one weapon for one
citizen, we are not
disarming the people,
those who already have
that (referring to two
or three guns) will
not have problems, we
are controlling the
new buyers," said the
Minister.
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think that the
government should
restrict gun ownership
to one weapon per
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