Zuleika Jess presses Parliament for swift Firearms Act changes

Opposition Spokesperson on Justice Zuleika Jess has added her voice to demands for Parliament to urgently revisit the Firearms Act, criticising legislators for approving what she called “absurdity”.

Jess, the first-term Member of Parliament for St Elizabeth Eastern, was not yet in the House of Representatives when the law was approved, as she entered Parliament after the 2025 general election.

Making her first Sectoral Debate presentation on June 4, Jess said lawmakers have a responsibility to craft legislation that serves fairness. “The primary duty of this House is to pass laws that deliver justice, not absurdity,” she said, while arguing that the statute was defective and pointing to what she described as a “glaring crisis in our judicial system”.

Jess said the Firearms (Prohibition Restriction and Regulation) Act needs immediate and practical correction. She also stressed that she would readily support any serious and balanced attempt to confront crime, saying criminality must be both controlled and eradicated.

The Opposition spokesperson said Jamaicans are capable of sound and creative problem-solving, particularly when party politics does not get in the way. She questioned why the Government had chosen such a heavy-handed approach, arguing that the law has moved beyond protecting citizens and is now punishing non-violent Jamaicans, including people in the creative sector.

Jess, who is a senior attorney-at-law, referred to the case of a music producer who, a little over two weeks ago, received a mandatory minimum 15-year prison term over imitation firearms used as music video props, rather than real guns.

The producer, 47-year-old Ewan Pryce, was sentenced to the compulsory 15 years for possession after several imitation firearms were discovered at his home in Grant’s Pen, St Andrew, during a joint police-military operation in 2023. He was also given a life sentence for stockpiling firearms.

“Not a single bullet could ever leave those plastic barrels. Yet, this State used a 15-year sledgehammer to crush a creative professional who posed no threat to public safety, effectively letting Parliament sentence the man instead of an independent judge,” Jess told the House.

She said the reaction from the legal profession showed how serious the problem had become. “This legislation is so fundamentally broken that it triggered a rare, historic moment of absolute consensus: both prosecutors and defence attorneys stood together in total agreement, demanding that this law be amended immediately. When the Sate’s own prosecutors lock hands with the defence to say a law is unjust, it is no longer a tool against crime; it is an instrument of injustice,” Jess added.

Jess urged Parliament to move quickly to revise the law. She said judges should regain full sentencing discretion and argued that the changes should apply retroactively so people already affected by the current provisions can have their cases reviewed.

In April, National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang said the Firearms Act would be amended to reduce the penalties attached to imitation firearms by placing that offence under another section of the law.