On Thursday, July 28, 2011, the Organization of American States (OAS) will donate a firearms marking machine to the government of Grenada. The firearms marking machine will be used by national police forces in the Caribbean island nation to control the illicit trafficking of such weapons.

The OAS and senior officials from the Grenadian government will convene tomorrow at the Youth Center Conference Room in St. George’s to discuss the agreement. As part of the agreement, the OAS’s Department of Public Security (DPS) will train police officers in the use of firearms marking equipment.

This donation is part of a broader OAS effort aimed at “Promoting Firearms Marking in Latin America and the Caribbean,” which falls within the Inter-American Convention against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives and Other Related Materials (CIFTA). OAS/SMS/DPS seeks to strengthen national capacities to control the illicit trafficking of firearms, as well as to improve the marking of licit firearms.