Editorial | Unmasking gun smugglers

Quick action by the security forces and customs has prevented 26 illegal guns from getting into criminal hands. This is something to celebrate in a country that is daily convulsed by gun violence that is claiming lives at an alarming rate. More than 75 per cent of the murders committed in Jamaica are by the gun.

Reports that 26 weapons including, an Uzi sub-machine, and ammunition, were intercepted at wharves in Kingston over a mere 48-hour period, renewed the national conversation about availability of guns and the violence it spawns and more importantly, about the people responsible for bringing these killing machines into our island.

Many have expressed the hope in Social Media posts that this action has significantly disrupted the criminal network involved in gun smuggling and may have put a dent in this trade that has pushed Jamaica's homicide rates to intolerable levels.

A few questions come readily to mind: How do these guns escape detection at the departing port? Is the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives even interested in helping our country to understand how these weapons travel from manufacturer to murder scene? Are we using every available resource including INTERPOL to trace the weapons that are found in Jamaica? How can the authorities effectively penetrate the underground weapons' market to prevent them from reaching our shores?

The fact is gun violence is routine in many Jamaican communities today - we see it every day. The guns used in these incidents were imported, anecdotal evidence points principally to the United States and once in Jamaica they are bought, borrowed, rented, stolen or shared. In this modern age of advanced technology and enhanced surveillance it has certainly jolted the consciousness that weapons are being smuggled in such quantities and with such frequency through our ports.

Key actors never caught

Our research confirms that the persons who provide these guns to criminals are never caught and made to face the consequences of their illegal activities. But criminals have to buy their guns and so there are amongst us, persons who are making a good living by selling illegal guns and ammunition. And we do not even know the scope and scale of this criminal network. Tracking a firearm from manufacturer through to export and ultimately to the streets, requires close collaboration between the police, customs and border patrol agencies like the Coast Guard.

There is every indication that the loosely regulated gun retail market in the United States is shortening the distance between criminals and illegal firearms. Jamaica is not the only country experiencing a bloody wave of gun violence. Take Mexico, concerned about the steady stream of weapons across their border, and thousands of murders, activists formed themselves in a group called "Stop US Arms to Mexico" and have been demanding and getting assistance from ATF in tracing some of the illegal weapons found in their country. They have even been able to successfully prosecute some of the perpetrators.

In large and small groups we have witnessed the enormous energy Jamaicans have used to build powerful movements to address issues affecting them. We suggest that it's time to build an active movement against gun smugglers.

If, as policy experts suggest, one of the key actions to reduce gun violence is to make firearms less accessible to those who would use them to commit crimes, then the campaign to staunch the flow of guns into our communities should begin now.