Gun advocacy groups are fond of saying that guns don't kill people, people kill people. Using clever misdirection to deflect from reality, the cunning play on words achieves its objective by distracting from the reality that it is also an absolute fact that people with guns kill more people than people without guns are able to do. That being the case, I would like to suggest that maybe we need to revisit the initial position and focus on the problem that guns and weapons of all types pose to the wider society and make it unprofitable and uncomfortable to be found in the possession of illegal weapons of any kind. Simply put we need to declare war on weapons of war and make it cost prohibitive to be found to be in possession of one.
The Wikipedia definition of a weapon is: 'A thing designed or used for inflicting bodily harm or physical damage.' The two major weapons used to terrorize, maim and murder in Trinidad & Tobago are guns and cutlasses, and we need to face this head on and deal with it. Cutlasses are multiple use implements and are also classified as tools so they may need special treatment in law and law enforcement, but guns are for killing, and that fact makes being in possession of one illegally a tedious position to explain. Based on this alone, prosecution for illegal gun offences should not be that difficult and were we to be serious about this a special 'Anti-Gun Court' should be set up to fast track cases of illegal gun possession with mandatory jail time and onerous fines increasing per offense swiftly and surely imposed.
Starting from six months and five thousand dollars for a first offence and escalating, by the third offence a career criminal could find himself facing a fifty thousand dollar fine and a six year jail sentence, effectively neutralizing him as any type of threat to society for everyone else's benefit. Make no mistake guns serve one purpose and that is to embolden the lawless by exerting advantage, making victims out of their targets in order to achieve their nefarious agendas. We need to 'flip the script' as they say and turn the tables by making being caught in possession of an illegal firearm such a frightening prospect through the promise of swift and effective prosecution as to make it an unthinkable option for the criminally minded.
With regard to cutlasses, and while one has to admit that they serve purposes other than criminal enterprise, they should not be carried on one's person in public unless that person is a certified farmer and his cutlass is properly wrapped in gazette paper and securely tied with string. When traveling in a vehicle a cutlass must also be so wrapped and secured and stowed in the trunk of the car so as to prevent it from being easily used as a weapon. Anyone who is not a certified farmer caught in possession of an unsecured cutlass in public should have some serious questions to answer, and should those questions fail to elicit adequate and reasonable responses the fine for the first offence should be a minimum of five thousand dollars with six months jail time an option available to the Magistrate depending on default or circumstances. Simply because they can be classified as a weapon, these sentences need to be severe and should also escalate in value based on serial convictions so as to have the desired effect. The message must be very clear, that we will not tolerate weapons of any kind being used against our citizenry and to be found to be in possession of one is to lose significant treasure and liberty.
The Ministry of National Security should launch an aggressive planned and sustained anti-gun campaign by first giving illegal gun owners forty eight hours to surrender their weapons through the use of an amnesty, following which the police should crack down on known offenders and utilize every resource to find all illegal guns and prosecute their owners.
Hoping and wishing and praying that guns 'go away' has not worked out to well so far, neither has burying our collective heads in the sand.
The Wikipedia definition of a weapon is: 'A thing designed or used for inflicting bodily harm or physical damage.' The two major weapons used to terrorize, maim and murder in Trinidad & Tobago are guns and cutlasses, and we need to face this head on and deal with it. Cutlasses are multiple use implements and are also classified as tools so they may need special treatment in law and law enforcement, but guns are for killing, and that fact makes being in possession of one illegally a tedious position to explain. Based on this alone, prosecution for illegal gun offences should not be that difficult and were we to be serious about this a special 'Anti-Gun Court' should be set up to fast track cases of illegal gun possession with mandatory jail time and onerous fines increasing per offense swiftly and surely imposed.
Starting from six months and five thousand dollars for a first offence and escalating, by the third offence a career criminal could find himself facing a fifty thousand dollar fine and a six year jail sentence, effectively neutralizing him as any type of threat to society for everyone else's benefit. Make no mistake guns serve one purpose and that is to embolden the lawless by exerting advantage, making victims out of their targets in order to achieve their nefarious agendas. We need to 'flip the script' as they say and turn the tables by making being caught in possession of an illegal firearm such a frightening prospect through the promise of swift and effective prosecution as to make it an unthinkable option for the criminally minded.
With regard to cutlasses, and while one has to admit that they serve purposes other than criminal enterprise, they should not be carried on one's person in public unless that person is a certified farmer and his cutlass is properly wrapped in gazette paper and securely tied with string. When traveling in a vehicle a cutlass must also be so wrapped and secured and stowed in the trunk of the car so as to prevent it from being easily used as a weapon. Anyone who is not a certified farmer caught in possession of an unsecured cutlass in public should have some serious questions to answer, and should those questions fail to elicit adequate and reasonable responses the fine for the first offence should be a minimum of five thousand dollars with six months jail time an option available to the Magistrate depending on default or circumstances. Simply because they can be classified as a weapon, these sentences need to be severe and should also escalate in value based on serial convictions so as to have the desired effect. The message must be very clear, that we will not tolerate weapons of any kind being used against our citizenry and to be found to be in possession of one is to lose significant treasure and liberty.
The Ministry of National Security should launch an aggressive planned and sustained anti-gun campaign by first giving illegal gun owners forty eight hours to surrender their weapons through the use of an amnesty, following which the police should crack down on known offenders and utilize every resource to find all illegal guns and prosecute their owners.
Hoping and wishing and praying that guns 'go away' has not worked out to well so far, neither has burying our collective heads in the sand.
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