The Right to Keep and Bear Arms, Ghana

Ishmael Norman

doi:10.4236/aasoci.2018.810040

Abstract

The 1992 Constitution provides explicit instructions to the citizens of Ghana to defend it. That is to say, the citizens are inured with the correlative constitutional right to acquire arms, to keep and to bear them in anticipation of national defense. Despite this charge, the legislative framework has, for a considerable length of time, placed administrative restrictions on gun ownership that undermine the constitutional grant to citizens to even acquire arms. The National Commission on Small Arms and regional conventions such as Ecowas Convention on Small Arms and Light Weapons, have confusing nomenclature and idiosyncratic definition for legal and illicit gun ownership that complicate the right to bear arms. This investigation attempts to show to what extent the constitutional mandate had been overlooked and encroached upon, and how the encroachment can be clawed back to enhance Article 3 rights of the citizens under the 1992 Constitution of Ghana.

Highlights

The right to bear arms is guaranteed by the 1992 Constitution of Ghana for the defense of the nation, but it is part of the fundamental and inherent rights of every individual for self-defense and self-preservation
There is a constant criminalization and decriminalization processes of gun ownership, which has been created by operational instruments, policy and regulations of the agencies such as the National Commission on Small Arms and related matters, the Ghana Police and the Ecowas Convention on Small Arms and Light Weapons
The mandate of the National Commission on Small Arms and Light Weapons need to be reviewed to correct some of the observations made in this paper and those that have been identified by other researchers

Summary

Introduction

The right to bear arms is guaranteed by the 1992 Constitution of Ghana for the defense of the nation, but it is part of the fundamental and inherent rights of every individual for self-defense and self-preservation The national Constitution provided that, citizens have “the right and duty at all times;” “to defend the Constitution, and in particular, to resist any person or group of persons seeking to commit any of the (enumerated) acts in Article 3” of the 1992 Constitution. I. Norman of a one-party state, suppression of the lawful political activity of any person or group, violent overthrow of government, abrogation of the Constitution or any part of it, and, or any offence of high treason (1992 Constitution of Ghana, 1992). Norman of a one-party state, suppression of the lawful political activity of any person or group, violent overthrow of government, abrogation of the Constitution or any part of it, and, or any offence of high treason (1992 Constitution of Ghana, 1992) The articulation of these values in the Constitution is not meant to be whimsical. They emerged out of real events in the history of Ghana such as forced military take-over and the suspension of the national constitution on several occasions in the past

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