The last of five Americans arrested in recent months in Turks and Caicos under gun control laws that make bringing firearms or ammunition into the territory without prior permission from police a crime has been sentenced.
Michael Lee Evans, of Texas; Sharitta Grier, of Florida; Bryan Hagerich, of Pennsylvania; Ryan Tyler Watson, of Oklahoma; and Tyler Wenrich, of Virginia, were all accused of bringing various amounts of ammunition to Turks and Caicos, a 40-island chain southeast of the Bahamas.
All have said the ammunition recovered from their luggage was not intentionally packed, according to American lawmakers who went to the British Overseas Territory in May as part of efforts to petition for their expedited release.
Though the infractions had carried a mandatory 12-year prison sentence and fine – with reductions only in “exceptional circumstances” – a mid-June revision clarified courts may impose a fine, a custodial sentence or both in exceptional circumstances, a member of the territory’s House of Assembly said June 14.
All five Americans arrested under the law have pleaded guilty, been sentenced and headed back to the US. Here’s what we know about the laws in Turks and Caicos and the affected Americans:
No constitutional right to carry firearms in Turks and Caicos
Though the territory doesn’t manufacture firearms or ammunition, the number of firearms finding their way to the islands has increased – and that’s a worry, Turks and Caicos Premier Washington Misick said.
While it is legal to fly in the US with unloaded firearms and ammunition in checked baggage, according to the Transportation Security Administration, taking firearms or ammunition into Turks and Caicos without prior permission from police is “strictly forbidden.”
The mandatory sentence was in place to protect those on the islands, Gov. Dileeni Daniel-Selvaratnam has said, adding judges could use their discretion to impose reduced sentences in “exceptional circumstances.”
But no special treatment should be given to any group, the Turks and Caicos premier said: “The law must be applied even-handedly.”
Even so, the “amendment was introduced to address concerns about the rigidity of the previous sentencing framework, which mandated both imprisonment and financial penalties for all firearms offenses, regardless of the specific context or severity,” House of Assembly member Edwin Astwood said in a statement.
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