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Malaysia puts freeze on new gun licences

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Saturday announced a nationwide freeze on the issue of licences to own firearms for an indefinite period.

Mahathir, who is also the Home Minister, said the freeze order was issued after the recent arrest in Taiwan of a Sabah businessman for alleged arms smuggling, the national Bernama news agency reported.

Malaysian police have confirmed that the arms were smuggled from the East Malaysia state of Sabah following the arrest of former national shooter Vincent Teo, now an arms and ammunition dealer in the Sabah city of Kota Kinabalu.

Teo has been sentenced to one month's jail and fined 6,000 ringgit for the illegal sale of 31 firearms to the businessman, who did not have a licence to own firearms.

Malaysian police said on Friday they were carrying out an internal probe into some policemen suspected to be linked to gun running in Sabah.

Mahathir said on Saturday that the freeze decision was made by the Home Ministry recently because too many licence holders had not been taking care of their firearms and had lost them.

"We have sometimes been too lax (in issuing the licences) and too many people are losing their firearms. So we want to ensure that only those who are eligible get the licence," he told reporters.

Ownership of firearms is strictly controlled under Malaysian law and holding guns illegally is punishable by death.-Reuter