Can a Ghanaian own or possess guns?
Dear Mirror Lawyer, Is there a right for Ghanaians to own and possess guns and use them as and when they desire as Americans do?
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Timothy Thompson (TT), Ogbojo, Accra.
Dear TT, In Ghana, the law regulating guns and firearms is the Arms and Ammunitions Act, 1972, NRCD 9. "Firearms" include any gun, rifle, machine-gun, cap-gun, flint-lock gun or pistol, revolver, pistol, cannon or other firearms, and any air gun, air rifle, or air pistol, whether whole or in detached pieces.
The law says it is an offence to own or possess arms and ammunition in the country unless you apply to register those arms or ammunition at the nearest police station.
The arms and ammunition to be registered must be produced for inspection by the police at the police station at which the application is made or the place at which the arms or ammunition are kept.
Once registered, the police officer authorised to effect the registration shall issue to the applicant, upon payment by him of a prescribed fee, a permit entitling the owner to possess those arms or ammunition.
The permit must also state the purposes and conditions for the use of the arms or ammunition. The law further states that a permit granted shall be valid for one year and then expire.
However, after expiration, it can be renewed for periods of one year at a time upon payment of the fees prescribed for renewal.
Where a permit is not renewed before its expiry, the holder of the permit shall immediately surrender it to the police, as well as all arms and ammunition held by him in respect of which the permit was granted.
The law recognises the fact that after a person has possessed or owned arms and ammunition in Ghana, ownership may change, and the equipment may be transferred to another person.
Such transfer may occur upon sale to another person, devised in a Will or inheritance under the law of succession. In situations like this, the law says that no person who possesses arms or ammunition in accordance with a valid permit granted by the police shall at any time sell, dispose or part with the possession of those arms or ammunition to any other person unless the owner applied in writing to the Inspector-General of Police for permission to transfer and such permission has been granted.
Where the actual owner is not available to make the application, the new owner shall apply accompanied by a declaration explaining how the equipment came into his possession.
After the Inspector General of Police (IGP) has granted permission for the transfer, the holder of the permit shall surrender it to the police who shall re-register the arms or ammunition in the name of the new holder, amend the permit accordingly, and deliver the permit to the new holder.
Such a permit shall continue in force in accordance with its original terms and such additional conditions as the IGP may impose and shall continue in force until the date of expiry originally specified.
Arms cannot be used anyhow in this country as done in the United States of America (USA). There must be real evidence that the use of any arms in Ghana by a private person was a result of an imminent threat to defend himself from attack.
In the US, the right to keep and bear arms traces its history from the people's right to have their own arms for their defence as described in the philosophical and political writings of Aristotle, Cicero, John Locke and Machiavelli.
It is also an enumerated right specifically protected by the US Constitution and many State Constitutions such that people have a personal right to own arms for individual use, and a right to bear these same arms both for personal protection and for use in a militia.
The right to keep and bear arms is codified in the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution which reads:
“A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”
Ghana’s Constitution and law do not have a similar provision as the USA.