•   Guns made available for purchase and licensing due to many requests: State Min. 

The licences for repeater guns being purchased by Parliamentarians, following the Ministry of Defence's recent decision, will be renewed annually after conducting a threat assessment on the respective MPs, stated the State Ministry of Defence.

The Ministry of Defence had informed the Secretary General of Parliament Kushani Rohanadeera recently that MPs would be allowed to purchase two repeater shotguns each from their personal funds, and retain them even after they are out of office.

When asked by The Daily Morning about the potential concerns of allowing MPs to keep the guns even after their term of office ends, State Minister of Defence Premitha Bandara Tennakoon clarified that the gun licences must be renewed annually.

"These guns are not issued permanently. Their licences have to be renewed every year, and the decision to renew them will depend on the threat assessments for the respective MPs," he explained.

He further said that the decision was made in response to requests from MPs, not at the behest of the Government. "In the past, MPs did not even have Police security. The provision of Police security began after the 1971 uprising. Similarly, there were requests from MPs for enhanced safety due to certain recent situations in the country. That's the reason for this decision. It's not that we proactively decided to provide guns to MPs,"

The repeater guns, which are to be possessed by MPs, can reportedly be chosen from three models. The MPs have however been prohibited from transferring the guns to any other party, and carrying them to Parliament and other crowded places.

While there were recent media reports suggesting that several MPs have already requested for repeater guns, both the main Parliamentary opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna-led National People's Power (NPP), also of the Parliamentary opposition, have stated that they wouldn't accept the offer.