Samoa’s Arms Ordinance Act, enacted during the New Zealand administration in 1960 and still used today, is being reviewed and amendments are to be tabled in the House. 

Debate on the outdated law sparked interest in the House on Tuesday when the Member of Parliament for Safata No.1, Leaana Ronnie Posini spoke about an increase in gun related incidents. 

Leaana was addressing the Legislative Assembly when it deliberated on the Samoa Law Reform Annual Report 2021-2022. 

The opposition M.P. recalled that it was normally the farmers who used to have firearms for their farms but that has changed over the years. 

He said he does not understand the need to import more guns if a firearm can be used for up to 20 years and importing more guns was concerning referring to a recent drive-by shooting incident. 

Leaana urged the Government to repeal the Arms Ordinance Act fearing that the country could soon see something worse happening. 

The Deputy Prime Minister, Tuala Iosefo Ponifasio intervened and asked that he has been asking why it took so long for the 1960 act to be amended. 

Tuala said he is part of the Shooting Association and participates in international competitions like the Pacific Games where Franco Caffarelli won a gold medal for Samoa. 

He then asked again why no changes were made to the Arms Ordinance Act in the last 10 years when he wrote to the Ministry of Police to amend the act. 

Tuala assured the current Government is not working on those amendments. 

Opposition Leader, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi interjected on a point of clarification. 

He told the House that the normal practice with previous government is if the law is good there is no need to change it. 

Secondly, Tuilaepa said the Shooting Association normally has seven guns available for members to practice and even he also used it for practice. 

But what he has observed, he said, especially the rich they always want to own their own guns but they don’t need them as there are seven guns available for shooting practice. 

Tuilaepa adviced the Deputy Prime Minister that if the law needs to be fixed then make changes to it instead of pointing the finger to blame why it wasn’t done before. 

Tuala took the floor to clarify that the reason why he raised questions on why the law was not amended earlier was because of an incident involving one of his family related to a firearm. 

He added that had the laws been fixed earlier it would have avoided such incidents and current problems with firearms. 

The Minister of Justice Courts and Administration, Matatumua Vasati Pulufana during the Government response explained why the outdated law was not amended earlier. 

Matamua said there was a request from the Ministry of Police for the Samoa Law Reform Commission to review the 1960 act but it was deferred to give priority to amendments to the Land and Titles Act package. 

She said consultation on the act is near completion and amendments are forthcoming. 

The Arms Ordinance Act of 1960 is one of the few remaining ordinances made and enforced during colonial times. 

To date, there have been minimal amendments to the act with the most recent passed in 2019 to facilitate the import of firearms into Samoa for the Pacific Games 2019 and to allow a person under the age of 21 years to be in the possession of a firearm for the same purpose. 

The Ministry of Police says it has faced challenges in effectively carrying out and enforcing the practices if they are not expressly provided for in the ordinance. 

Some of the issues are the ordinance act is outdated, there are issues in the licensing system, weaknesses in controlling firearms and inconsistencies in the armoury register. 

Parliament sitting that lasted for two weeks has been adjourned until May.