WILLEMSTAD - Gun possession may soon be penalized higher in Curaçao. If Parliament approves the draft law for this, the maximum prison sentence for firearms possession will be increased from four to six years. For "special" firearms, such as machine guns, it is increased from six to eight years. Penalties for recidivism and fines will also be adjusted upwards. In 2019, the Advisory Board stated that it was not certain whether the intended deterrent effect was actually achieved, because earlier research had not shown this.
The initiative for the act was based on data from the 2014 CBS victim survey, which showed that three-quarters of the victims were threatened with a weapon.