Holness: Glorification of guns must end
Published:Saturday | November 11, 2023 | 12:09 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Prime Minister Andrew Holness says greater efforts must be made to stop the glorification of Jamaica’s gun culture and punish perpetrators of gun-related crimes.
Holness made the declaration on Thursday while visiting the Chetwood Primary School in Montego Bay, where seven-year-old Justin Perry and nine-year-old Nahcoliva Smith were students.
The young boys were killed on Monday when a gunman opened fire at the taxi in which they were travelling along the Flower Hill main road in Salt Spring.
Tevin Hayle, a 26-year-old man who was a passenger in the taxi, was also killed in that incident.
“In all the discourse that is going on, the guns are still coming in, and though we have increased the number of guns we are finding, that is only a signal that there are more guns out there, so we have to get serious on it. This notion of glorification of someone who has a gun, that he has the gun to protect himself, that notion needs to be totally destroyed. From my perspective, if you have a gun, you intend to kill,” Holness said.
“Our culture and psychology must change. The people who have guns are not Robin Hood; they are not there to somehow create some social justice for you, they are there to kill you and kill innocent children. If you know someone who has a gun, you have a duty under common law to talk, because that is a serious offence,” Holness added.
The prime minister noted that further amendments will be made to the Firearms (Prohibition, Restriction, and Regulation) Act, which was passed in November 2022, in order to tighten the grip of the law on illegal firearm-holders.
“We have to crack down on the illegal importation of the guns, and the access to the guns, and we also have to crack down on the glorification of guns within the communities. We are going to be making further amendments to the Firearms Act, and in the coming days, the public will see that even stronger measures are going to be applied on firearms, and on the illegal use and possession of firearms,” said Holness.
“It is clear that our young men in particular have access to illegal and dangerous weapons, and it is as if these weapons create a source of addiction; it empowers them, it makes them feel as if they are invincible. Some of them worship the gun, and they use it to create mayhem,” Holness noted.
Under Section Five of the Firearms Act, an offender who is found in possession of a prohibited weapon will be sentenced to life imprisonment if convicted in a circuit court. The court may also specify a term of imprisonment not less than 15 years before an offender is eligible for parole.
Holness also commented on calls which have been made, including by Opposition Leader Mark Golding, for social intervention programmes to be used to curb crime instead of imposing states of emergency (SOEs).
The Government announced a SOE for St James on Wednesday morning.
“I hear people saying, ‘Oh, well, you know SOEs don’t work, let us use social intervention’. The level of social intervention that we have put into this community (Salt Spring), I was very impressed at the results of the social intervention, and particularly I got some reports of how the police worked at back-to-school measures to ensure the children could go back to school, and providing them with support and being there at Christmas, and it seemed to have been working, and the level of reports of serious crime fell,” said Holness. “But this shows you that persons still have the guns and they can use them at any time because they know nobody will talk.”