Editorial | The American Gun

The debate about the American gun has gone on for many years, and while Jamaica continues to tally gunshot victims, there is almost a sense of despair among those who govern that it’s a battle they cannot win.

Thousands of people are being slaughtered each year with illegal guns smuggled from America. Communities have been shattered by gun violence, businesses have been shuttered. Ironically, the slaughter is taking place in America, too, but with legally acquired guns. It has been recognised that gun violence is one of the great perils of the global public health system.

While America issues travel advisories to warn its citizens of how dangerous countries like Jamaica can be, notwithstanding its own alarming statistics of nearly 100 deaths each day by the gun, it has not helped to staunch the flow of dangerous weapons of death from its shores to ours.

Faced with mass shootings itself, there have been strident calls for gun legislation, prohibition even, in the United States. But the powerful gun lobby has quashed efforts at any form of regulation. Cautioned that legislation could splinter his political coalition, President Donald Trump has rested the matter on the side burner.

Meanwhile, people in America who are known as straw buyers continue to acquire guns legally and sell them to smugglers, who conceal them in barrels and car parts on their way to Jamaica and elsewhere in the region.

If one listens carefully to Chief Justice Anthony Smellie of the Cayman Islands, he has a prescription for changing this pattern.

Addressing a commemorative dinner of his alma mater, Cornwall College Old Boys, Chief Justice Smellie suggested, “Our countries should bring international pressure to bear, starting in the United Nations.”

Why, he asked, shouldn’t Jamaica, a member of CARICOM and the Organization of American States, take a lead role on this matter?

“There is no reason to think that any action will be taken by the United States government in the foreseeable future to recognise, let alone respect and honour, its obligation to relieve its neighbouring states of the devastation caused by the American gun,” said Caymans’ senior jurist.

TIME FOR INTERVENTION

Smellie cited the vigour with which the United States has carried out its war against drug traffickers and those who launder their ill-gotten gains. Clearly, the activities of drug trackers are deemed inimical to the interest of the US, but not guns, so there is no equivalent effort in the area of smuggling.

The point that politicians often miss is that the problem of gun violence is scaling up towards an international humanitarian crisis. The suffering by victims and their families is not limited to Third-World countries. And like, Justice Smellie, we believe the time for intervention is now.

There is a great correlation between guns, crime and poverty. By helping to keep border countries safe, the US is doing itself a favour, for more people will be minded to remain at home and raise their families and build their lives.

Gun violence is an epidemic, and unless urgent action is taken, it will continue to suck the lifeblood out of our communities and countries. There can be no topic more important for CARICOM leaders to tackle than how to rid the region of the American gun.