Arms Offences Act

The Arms Offences Act is a statute of the Parliament of Singapore that criminalizes the illegal possession of arms and ammunition and the carrying, trafficking, and usage of arms.[1] The law is designed specifically to make acts of ownership, knowingly receiving payment in connection with the trade of a trafficked armaments and ammunition, as well as the unlawful usage of arms and ammunition a criminal offence.

Arms Offences Act
Parliament of Singapore
Enacted byParliament of Singapore
Enacted1973
Amended by
31 March 2008
Status: In force

Overview

The Arms Offences Act is an Act to deter unlawful ownership, trafficking and usage of arms and ammunition. It was originally enacted in 1973.

The Arms Offences Act defines the punishment to be meted out for different scenarios of violations, and serves as an instrument for imprisoning and caning of offenders. Apart from unlawful possession of arms or ammunition, illegal usage of arms in particular the committing of a scheduled offence, the Act also prescribes punishment for accomplices and individuals that consort with offenders and traffickers.

Uses of the Act

The first person to be charged and convicted under the Act was Sha Bakar Dawood. He was sentenced to death in 1975 for shooting and wounding three people at a brothel and then opening fire at police at Thiam Siew Avenue.[2]

In July 1984, in Shenton Way, gunman Khor Kok Soon had fired three shots at police officers chasing him before he managed to escape in a lorry, forcing a lorry driver to drive him to safety. The driver, 25-year-old Ong King Hock, was found fatally shot in his lorry, which was abandoned at an alley (but Khor had escaped by the time the lorry was found). Khor, who evaded capture for the next 19 years, was arrested in Malaysia on 27 December 2003 and extradited back to Singapore for trial. He was charged for firing his gun thrice under this Act (as well as the murder of the lorry driver) and in February 2005, Khor was sentenced to hang.[3]

On 9 January 2009, 42-year-old gunman Tan Chor Jin (AKA: the One-eyed Dragon) was hanged in Changi Prison for fatally shooting 41-year-old nightclub owner Lim Hock Soon in 15 February 2006. Initially charged with murder, Tan was sentenced to death for unlawfully discharging his firearm under the Arms Offences Act (under this Act, anyone who unlawfully discharged a firearm in Singapore, even with no intention to kill, would face the mandatory death penalty).[4]

Muhammad Iskandar Sa'at was also charged in June 2015 under the Arms Offences Act after discharging three rounds from a .38-calibre Taurus revolver at a policeman in a private room at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital during a struggle in the hospital room. He had allegedly also hit the police officer repeatedly with a T-baton and a metal pole used for securing an intravenous drip.[5] Muhammad Iskandar Sa'at is pending the capital punishment as of 2016.[6] Iskandar was eventually sentenced to life imprisonment and 18 strokes of the cane for a lesser charge of an unlawful possession of a firearm to cause hurt to a public servant.[7]

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See also
  • Capital Punishment in Singapore

References
  1. https://sso.agc.gov.sg/Act/AOA1973
  2. "Guilty As Charged: Lim Ban Lim was most wanted gunman in Singapore and Malaysia in 1960s". The Straits Times. 14 May 2016.
  3. "True Files S5". meWATCH. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
  4. Hoe, Pei Shan (17 May 2016). "Guilty As Charged: 'One-eyed Dragon' Tan Chor Jin shot nightclub owner". The Straits Times. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
  5. Hussain, Amir (2 February 2016). "Man under probe for traffic offences jailed for lorry theft". Straits Times. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
  6. Mokhtar, Faris (22 June 2015). "Investigations into Khoo Teck Puat shooting could inform possible 'corrections', says Masagos". ChannelNewsAsia. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
  7. K.C., Vijayan (20 March 2018). "Man who snatched police officer's revolver and fired three shots gets life term in jail, caning". The Straits Times. Archived from the original on 3 July 2019. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
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