Licensed firearms in criminal hands!

It has come to light that a section of arms dealers are apparently selling legally imported and licensed guns to underworld criminals. According to a report printed in this paper on April 18, some dealers are filing off the serial numbers that each firearm carries before selling them on the black market. Dhaka Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism (CT) unit made the revelations after catching a manager at a legal arms-selling shop red-handed.

Several questions pop up on this issue. Is there a database maintained by local law enforcers on what arms are being imported by official arms dealers? If so, is there any system of cross-checking which firearm is sold to whom? Do the agencies responsible for security have any mechanism to keep track of legally imported arms, their sales, and if not, why so? The country has long been a victim of illicit arms and explosives. Illegal small arms proliferation has increased exponentially over the years. These go hand in hand with the illicit narcotics trade and unfortunately, arms have now become the preferred tool for settling scores, political or otherwise.

Now if we have licensed firearms making their way to criminals, then there will be serious ramifications on the law and order situation, particularly in the run-up to the general elections. We feel it necessary that all legal arms dealers are subjected to the checking of their inventories by law enforcers every six months, if not more frequently.