Five Americans have been arrested in Turks and Caicos over the past six months under gun control laws that make bringing firearms or ammunition into the territory without prior permission from police a crime. Michael Lee Evans, of Texas; Sharitta Grier, of Florida; Bryan Hagerich, of Pennsylvania; Ryan Tyler Watson, of Oklahoma; and Tyler Wenrich, of Virginia, were all accused of bringing various amounts of ammunition to Turks and Caicos, a 40-island chain southeast of the Bahamas. All have said the ammunition recovered from their luggage was not intentionally packed, according to American lawmakers who went to the British Overseas Territory in May as part of efforts to petition for their expedited release. Though the infractions had carried a mandatory 12-year prison sentence and fine – with reductions only in “exceptional circumstances” – a mid-June revision clarified courts may impose a fine, a custodial sentence or both in exceptional circumstances,…
