Someone said that slingshots are illegal in the Cayman Islands. Can you please confirm that?


Ask Auntie, CNS Local Life, Caymanian statusAuntie’s answer: This is one of those questions that I thought would be easy to answer, but I was wrong. However, an RCIPS spokesperson helped me through it.

Apparently, there is nothing specific in the law that, as it pertains to police action, suggests that a slingshot is illegal. Having that said, though, I was told that “depending on the manner it is used, i.e. if it is used to cause harm to a person, then it becomes an offensive weapon”.

In addition, there is the issue of whether it is legal to import a slingshot and for that I consulted the Customs Department website, in the section on “Prohibitions and Restrictions” (see link here for the complete list). On the list of items people are not allowed to bring into Cayman, it includes the “import of bows, pellet guns, catapults or other manually operated weapons which are capable of projecting arrows or other missiles”.

To expand on that prohibition, I will add that by definition, slingshots are considered a type of catapult, so it would be best to leave that out of your suitcase if you are travelling here.