By Nicholas Bass
A 69-year-old American, Benny Clovis Mayer is facing trial for unlawful possession of a BB gun with thirty-one pellets of firearms without license contrary to section 8 and it is punishable under section 25 (2) (b) of the ammunition Act Cap 21:01 Volume IV, Laws of the Gambia 2009.
At the call of the case in the Brikama Magistrates’ Court before Principal Magistrate Isatou Dabo, Benny Clovis Mayer without wasting court time willingly pleaded guilty to the offense.
According to the particulars of the offence, Benny Clovis Mayer on or about the 3rd July 2022 at Sanyang Village in the West Coast Region of the Republic of the Gambia, was found in possession of one BB gun and thirty-one (31) pellets without proper authority or without a license, thereby committed an offence.
In his narration, the Police prosecuting Sargent Ousainou Touray told the court that on the 3rd July 2022 the Banjulinding Police Anti-Crime Unit received information of one man having a gun without a license which prompted the office to send a team of Police Officers to the accused house in Sanyang Village, West Coast Region. Upon their arrival, they identified themselves as Police Anti-Crime Officers before they disclosed their mission of wanting to search his house.
He continued in his narration that during the search for Benny Clovis Mayer’s house one Police Anti-Crime Officer found a BB gun on the roof of the accused house in the presence of him, Benny Clovis Mayer, and he gave the Police Anti-Crime Officers thirty –one (31) pellets at the scene of the crime. He said his arrest was declared to him by the Police Anti-Crime Officers.
He said the accused pleaded to be allowed to report to Banjulinding Police Anti-Crime Unit on the 4th of July 2022 because he was living in an isolated area with his wife alone.
The prosecutor continued that, the accused, Benny Clovis Mayer was questioned on the 4th of July 2022 at Banjulinding Police Anti-Crime Unit where he disclosed that his gun was unlicensed and that the BB gun with 31 pellets was shipped into the Gambia with other items from America but unnoticed by the Gambia Ports Authority.
Further to that, the prosecutor said the BB gun was taken to Headquarters of the Gambia Armed Force (GAF) in Banjul where Major Bah made a ballistic examination of the BB gun and he confirmed that the BB gun can be used for killing birds and hunting animals.
However, according to the GAF, the BB gun is a deadly weapon that can cause serious injuries to human beings if the pellet touches a human being in the range of seventy-five (75) meters. “I hereby wish to tender the gun, thirty-one pellets, and the ballistic report to be admitted and marked as exhibits in accordance to section 3 of the Evidence Act,” Sergeant Touray, submitted to the court.
Magistrate Isatou Dabo, therefore, marked the gun as exhibit 1, the thirty-one pellet as Exhibit 2, and the ballistic examination report of the gun as exhibit 3. The case was adjourned to the 15th of September 2022 at noon for judgment.
Sargent OusinouTouray represented the IGP.