Opinion
Set aside communist Cuba for a moment. These days, another Caribbean island jurisdiction is providing a cautionary tale for U.S. gun owners. Multiple Americans face 12 years in prison in separate incidents for allegations they inadvertently possessed ammunition in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
According to reports, Richmond, Va. EMT, husband, and father Tyler Wenrich was charged with possessing ammunition in the island nation on April 23. An article from ABC Richmond affiliate WRIC stated that the ammunition was found in Wenrich’s possession as his cruise ship stopped at the British overseas territory.
The Richmond gun owner’s wife told the news outlet that her husband has a concealed carry permit and noted that “the bag the ammunition was found in may have been the same bag [her husband] uses to go to the gun range.” Addressing the potential penalties for ammunition possession in the islands, the wife said, “Just the idea that your family might not be whole anymore. It’s just really scary and heartbreaking,” adding, “All I could imagine was my son growing up without a dad.”
Describing the situation to a news outlet, Wenrich explained, “I’ve used that bag to go to the shooting range with friends and to carry my firearm in the past. So it was, you know, I checked it before I left, and it was just a complete oversight on me. TSA and, the port security, you know, three groups missed that ammunition.” CBS’s Richmond affiliate noted that it was only two rounds of ammunition that triggered the arrest.
This incident followed the arrest of Oklahoma husband and father of two Ryan Watson for ammunition possession in early April. Watson was visiting the islands for his 40th birthday when authorities discovered the ammunition at the airport.
Explaining the situation to NBC’s Boston affiliate, the gun owner explained, “They were hunting ammunition rounds that I use for whitetail deer and I recognized them and I thought, oh man, what a bonehead mistake that I had no idea that those were in there.” Watson went on to state, “There was zero criminal intent. I had never, ever intended to bring any type of ammunition into this country.”
In February, Pennsylvania father of two Bryan Hagerich was detained on the Turks and Caicos Islands when ammunition was found in his luggage during an airport search as he and his family were leaving the jurisdiction. Addressing the matter on Fox News, the Pennsylvania father said,
It’s a very strict law. They’re trying to combat violence…gun trafficking, et ceterra, which I have the utmost respect for, but when you have a law that takes essentially a one-size-fits all approach, there are unintended consequences… We’re not a threat to the island. We’re not a threat to the people. We’re good, loving human beings that simply made a mistake.
The mother of Indiana man Michael Grim, who was sentenced to eight months in prison for ammunition possession in August 2023, was less charitable. Speaking with NBC’s Boston affiliate, the mother explained that her son “did not have a gun. And, you know, there was no violence involved. And so we really did hold out hope that he would possibly get a very hefty fine… But once everything was set into motion, you know, it was a devastating experience.” According to the report, the family “spent more than $100,000 on an extended stay, bail money and attorney fees.”
Further, the family was forced to fear for Grim’s safety. The mother pointed out that the prison where her son was incarcerated “had been sanctioned by the U.N. for unsanitary conditions.”
According to a statement put out by the Turks and Caicos Islands government, since increasing the penalty for firearm and ammunition possession in 2022, the law has ensnared eight U.S. tourists.
Key to avoiding any potential problems is for traveling gun owners to always ensure they start the packing process with an empty bag. However, despite taking precautions, gun owners know that these types of possession accidents can happen. Ammunition and ammunition components are often quite small and can find their way into places they don’t belong. No one’s life should be forever altered over this type of inadvertent possession.
That’s why NRA-ILA has worked with state lawmakers in some jurisdictions to enact safe harbor provisions for travelers. These laws help to ensure that those who discover the possession of a firearm or ammunition during the airport screening process are not prosecuted under state law for illegal firearm or ammunition possession, provided they leave the secure area of an airport immediately. Such laws do not prevent potential federal penalties or, of course, prosecution by foreign governments.
The Turks and Caicos Islands’ insistence on severely punishing otherwise law-abiding American tourists for innocuous conduct is curious. The islands’ primary industry is tourism, which accounts for about 70 percent of the jurisdiction’s gross domestic product. About 82-percent of tourists who arrive to the islands by air are from the U.S. Recent NBC news polling showed that more than half of American households own firearms.
Moreover, Turks and Caicos has a host of real problems to address. Unsurprisingly, they don’t involve well-meaning visitors from the U.S.
In October 2023, The Guardian published an item titled, “Turks and Caicos engulfed by gang warfare, says Foreign Office report.” According to the outlet, an internal UK Foreign Office report “lays bare the extent to which the islands were engulfed by extreme violence… amid a turf war for control of drug trafficking routes.” The report concluded that “The scale of threat posed by serious crime has overwhelmed the capacity and capabilities of the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force.”
Official corruption may also be a problem. The same article cited a report from the UK’s Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice at Sheffield Hallam University. Describing the findings, the outlet noted,
“Corruption is widely recognised across TCI’s public service system by interview participants [and] survey respondents,” it said. So endemic was the problem that islanders believed corruption was “the second most important crime concern to address on the islands after murder”.
Back in 2009, the UK government suspended the Turks and Caicos government and imposed direct rule on the islands following alleged widespread corruption.
Since September, the U.S. State Department has issued two warnings to those travelling to the Turks and Caicos Islands to take extra care to check luggage for any firearms or ammunition before travelling to the islands. Hopefully the State Department is taking additional measures to help ensure that the outstanding ammunition incidents are resolved without the further incarceration or impoverishment of the U.S. citizens involved.
U.S. gun owners may want to take the Turks and Caicos Islands’ actions into account before risking a trip to the Caribbean jurisdiction. Even U.S. gun owners confident in their ability to purge their luggage of any potential contraband may want to consider the wisdom of spending their money in a jurisdiction that would treat their countrymen in such a manner.
Read Related: SAF Travel Advisory: Avoid Turks & Caicos Islands ~ DO NOT VISIT
About NRA-ILA:
Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the “lobbying” arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess, and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Visit: www.nra.org
With the rather sudden increase in these “ammo in luggage” cases, the thought occurred to me that just perhaps the Turks and Caicos inspectors might be slipping some 9mm rounds into tourist luggage for reasons unknown. TSA didn’t find the rounds. The entry personnel in T&C didn’t find any rounds. It wasn’t until people were leaving the country that the rounds were found. Might be just me, but that seems a bit odd.
Good thought. It’d be interesting to know how many other countries happen to find ammo in U.S. citizen luggage upon their departure. Hmmm… secret UN operation to thwart our gun rights? Here’s another thought: Don’t go to these countries unless there is some compelling reason to do so. Personally, I have no reason or desire to leave my homeland…er…not yet, anyway. “About 82-percent of tourists who arrive to the islands by air are from the U.S.” So how much would their economy suffer if this number was to drop significantly – which it should rightfully do… if only more Americans actually gave… Read more »
FYI, the guy admitted he had brought the ammo on vacation with him. The vacation came to an abrupt end when airport staff members found a zip-close bag containing bullets in the couple’s carry-on luggage. Watson said it was hunting ammunition he had accidentally brought with him — but under a strict law in Turks and Caicos, a court may still impose a mandatory 12-year sentence. “They were hunting ammunition rounds that I use for whitetail deer,” Watson told NBC Boston in an interview conducted last week that aired after their first court appearance Tuesday. “I recognized them, and I thought, ‘Oh,… Read more »
Stay the F out of other countries, especially for “vacation” stuff. There is enough to see and do in America. Avoid California, New York, Washington and New Jersey and you will be fine.
I used to vacation a lot in Canada. Having VA plates on my car, I would always get the riot act about guns from CBSA. One in particular was angry because I wanted my interview in English. He threatened me in front of my daughter. He said, “If we search your car find even one round, you’re going to jail.” I stopped going to Canada after that. You only have one chance to make a bad first impression. Haven’t spent any money in Canada since. I don’t even shop online there anymore.
Other than the possibility of cheaper liquor, what do these damn Caribbean islands have to offer that one cannot get in Florida, Hawaii, US Virgin Islands or Puerto Rico?
Prison for ammo.
Their country, their laws, their punishments.
Imagine how much better off we would be in the US if we prosecuted and convicted using our own laws instead of letting law breakers out on reduced, or no bail, little or no jail time
Who the hell are you? I hope to god you are not in law enforcement or have a job in the judicial system. People whom strictly go by the book are mouth breathing and weak minded!
Just say no to tourism in the Turks and Caicos. They live and thrive off of OUR tourist dollars.
In the 2000’s, my Mom and step-Dad were going to the UK. For at least part of the trip, they would be staying with friends while over there. Before packing, Mom went through her luggage with a fine toothed comb, looking for any guns, ammo, or other contraband that may have been left in her luggage from trips made by land, here in CONUS. She found nothing and proceeded to pack. They had at least two stops in the US, one in Charlotte, NC and another somewhere in New Jersey, where TSA and/or Customs went through their stuff. Nothing offensive… Read more »
Not much deer hunting there.
If they were a transvestite smuggling drugs then Joe would have already got them free.
I’d like to put together a couple of hundred mercs and a couple of ad-hoc gunboats and stage a coup.
I would love to have a nice beach house.
Seems to me that “boneheaded” is the word of choice here. As was said, start packing with an empty bag. I’m empathic with these folks, and, yes, I suppose, the authorities have been corrupt enough to set them up. But that feels flimsy. Rather, it looks like the “victims” are perpetrators according to the law of the land they…uh…landed in. Why go to some places that have strict laws on things you think are okay? Well, there isn’t a reason if you don’t want to. Don’t. But following the thoughts of Grant Cunningham, whose reputation is pretty solid, especially on… Read more »
Anybody who is dumb enough to “forget” about any bullets in their luggage, is not smart enough to be handling guns and bullets in the first place! How hard is it to take a good look in any bags BEFORE piling the clothes and shoes into them? Yes, if the luggage was clean of any bullets when going through one checkpoint, but not clean at another one, someone had to have put them in there to be “found”! So, check your luggage often and thoroughly, and if any bullets or other stuff is found in it that isn’t yours, then… Read more »
None of the eight were, or are, innocent…they broke the law because they were not personally responsible.
You sir are a asshat
Yep, pretty much how I see it. Know before you go, are some of the wisest words that I have ever come across! Especially going into the run up of the world wide fiat currency system’s collapse, and probably for a long time afterwards, I’m NOT setting foot across any borders! The many risks far outweigh the few rewards.
I went to Mexico at about 12 years old on vacation with my folks. Later when in the Marine Corps, they told us if we go to Mexico that the Mexican government would grab us and try and hold us hostage to extort money from the USA for our release and made sure we understood that our government would not pay a penny to get us back so we were on our own and subjected to what ever they wanted us to do, oh and by the way, if you don’t make it back for assembly, you are Awal with… Read more »