Karak district residents agree to curb festive firing

AMMAN — Festive firing in the southern Governorate of Karak has killed four people and injured 64 over the past five years, at an average of 13 injuries every year, according to a Public Security Department (PSD) official.

First Lt. Louai Majali, head of media and public relations at Karak police, said 197 firearms have been seized in the governorate, some 140km south of Amman, during the same period, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported on Sunday.

Majali was speaking at a ceremony in Karak’s Qasr District on Saturday, where popular and youth movements signed an honour pact to put a stop to the phenomenon of celebratory gunfire.

Majali said the document is within the PSD’s “Don’t Kill with Your Happiness” initiative.

Signatories commit to not firing guns at weddings and social events and to boycotting any event where festive firing occurs, according to Petra.

They also agreed to report those who carry firearms at social occasions to the authorities.

Following the injury of a six-year-old girl, the PSD’s radio station, Amen FM launched the initiative “Don’t Kill with Your Happiness,” with the aim of highlighting the negative consequences of festive firing.

The campaign intensified following the shooting death of another child in an incident that was captured on a mobile and went viral in cyberspace.

In August, the PSD announced stiff measures against violators, including locking up any groom whose wedding includes festive shooting.

The PSD pledged to conduct campaigns in various governorates and arrest any person who owns a gun without a licence and/or arrest people who fire weapons on any occasion, and individuals who sell weapons and ammunition for this purpose.

According to official figures released last October, three people were killed and 41 injured by festive firing in 2014.

At least 21 cases were registered last year against anonymous assailants, where shooters could not be identified, according to the PSD.

Earlier this month, the Cabinet announced proposed changes to the draft weapons and ammunition law, under which individuals will be banned from possessing automatic weapons and all relevant licences in this regard will be considered null and void.

As stipulated in the new amendments, natural and juridical persons can obtain licences for pistols, but automatic weapons will be limited to security companies and private guards.

The draft law also lists penalties of imprisonment and temporary hard labour between three months and three years or a JD1,000 fine or both penalties against everyone convicted of practising festive firing, in addition to confiscating the weapon used.

New articles were added to the draft law that completely ban carrying, selling, purchasing, possessing or importing any hunting rifles (pump-action or automatic) which use ammunition clips that can accommodate more than one bullet.