Santo Domingo.- The authorities have cancelled more than 38,000 licenses to carry guns, almost all of them whose owners who hadn’t paid the fee as of December 29 , the Interior and Police minister revealed yesterday.

Franklin Almeida’s announcement comes just hours after Santo Domingo province prosecutor Perfecto Acosta showed reporters dozens of guns seized in bars, discos and other places, from the owners who carried them visibly.

Almeida warned that those people can also lose their license to posses a weapon if they don’t pay the tax before February 6.

Last year Interior and Police also cancelled permits to bear firearms for different reasons, mainly for misuse, many by aggression by people carrying guns legally.

In the press conference, Interior and Police officials revealed that 29 42,263 people hadn’t renewed their permits to carry and possess firearms as of December, and only around 3,852 had heeded their warning in the last few days.

Firearm figures

Interior and Police has 205,913 civilians registered with guns.

The officials showed a Gallup survey conducted in December which found that 79 percent of the population favors a ban on weapons imports; 97 percent of those polled agree with the current requirements to obtain permits to carry and possess guns, while 81 percent of those surveyed approved Interior and Police’s “discretionary power” to revoke licenses.