Give gun licences to people to protect themselves

THE EDITOR, Madam:

Our security forces, in most cases of mass shootings, are reacting after the murders take place. We need to give our poor, defenceless, decent, and law-abiding citizens the ability to protect themselves.

Currently, only Jamaican elite are able to meet the onerous requirements to obtain firearms permits, but the vast majority of persons being killed by gun violence are poor people in depressed communities.

The average response time by our law enforcement units in an active shooting situation is at best several hours, while many mass shootings are already over in less than 10 minutes, leaving multiple people dead, and the killers are able to make their escape long before the police arrive on the scene. Those few minutes can make a difference between life and death, and this suggests that the best way to reduce the mass murder of innocent, poor Jamaican citizens is to arm more law-abiding people who can neutralise the attacks before the police arrive at the scene.

I believe the above crime prevention strategy will reduce substantially the incidences of murderous crimes in Jamaica, and will be embraced by our people.

NORMAN MARSH