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..rather than blatantly deny them of their constitutional rights.
Handcuffing the people of Yard hands behind their backs and then blame them for not snitching on infamous gunmen.
Why are people being denied if they satisfy the requirements?
Strong has a gun!
No guns for you!
Firearm Licensing Authority boss rejects calls to arm the nation
KARYL WALKER, Crime/court co-ordinator walkerk@jamaicaobserver.com
Thursday, January 29, 2009
CHAIRMAN of the Firearms Licensing Authority Errol Strong has rejected calls from gun rights lobbyists and members of the public who have been clamouring for Government to relax legislation to allow all law-abiding citizens easier access to owning firearms.
According to Strong, with Jamaica's high propensity for violence, the move could backfire with devastating results.
"In the context of the Jamaican experience, the right for everybody to own a gun could have profound consequences. Quite often attacks on licensed firearm holders and the police are to get the guns," Strong told the Observer.
Strong got the backing of a woman who just this week lost her mother and her three children in a brutal arson/gun attack in the deep rural Jamaican community of Land Top in St Thomas.
The woman, Aretha Smith, said guns are not the answer.
Smith's children - five-year-old Thalia Cousins and her two siblings, Nisha and Jawara, aged two and three years old - and her 55-year-old mother, Angela Lynch were slaughtered during the brutal attack early Monday morning.
Said Smith: "If everyone had a gun then the whole Jamaica would be dead. I don't want none because God will protect me. Whoever did this. them must go down."
The National Gun Rights Association (NGRA), which has won the backing of several Jamaicans in its call to free up the gun licensing system, will this evening host a public meeting at the Altamont Court in Kingston as part of its ongoing lobby.
Under the Firearms Act, citizens 17 years and over can apply for ownership of a firearm at the Firearms Licensing Authority. Applicants will be fingerprinted and vetted to prove that they had no history of mental problems or violence. In addition, applicants should have no previous convictions and will be required to submit photographs and fill out a questionnaire on the safekeeping of firearms. A fee of $6,000 is also required.
But according to NGRA chairman, Shawn Johnson, the process is too tedious. Johnson argued that with Jamaica's out-of-control murder rate, the state should relax the current legislation to allow law-abiding citizens easier access to legal firearms once they are over the age of 21 and able to prove they are competent to own a gun.
He said that while business owners and persons from affluent neighbourhoods are easily granted gun licences and criminals are heavily armed with illegal weaponry, a large number of decent Jamaicans are caught in the crossfire.
"It is the most vulnerable people who are prevented from getting arms. The act is only there to prevent law-abiding citizens from getting firearms. Crime costs the country $83 billion a year so the Government should institute a policy where they train and arm citizens in an effort to cut down that heavy cost," Johnson said.
The NGRA has been lobbying for easier gun ownership for five months and according to Johnson, most of its 550 members are unarmed citizens who are facing difficulties acquiring a firearm.
"We only want a safer Jamaica," Johnson said.
Mark Smith, who operates a route taxi agreed with Johnson.
"As transport people we face danger on the road everyday. Last week one man had to flee from his car after three gunman try hold him up and kill him. If he had a gun then it would be a different story because cutlass can't fight gun," Smith said.
But a Corporate Area teacher, who requested anonymity, said the high level of violence in schools and the negative effect the gun culture has on the minds of the nation's young, made it hard to agree with the gun rights lobbyists.
"There are already too many guns in our society and I think bringing more into the mainstream would only make matters worse," the teacher said.
More than 10 per cent of the 1,611 murders reported last year where committed in the parish of Clarendon but head of the Clarendon Chamber of Commerce, Aldo Brown said he was undecided on the issue.
"On one hand if criminals know that a person has the ability to defend themselves, they must think twice, but on the other hand I don't think we as Jamaicans have the ability or temperament to handle firearms," Brown said.
Handcuffing the people of Yard hands behind their backs and then blame them for not snitching on infamous gunmen.
Why are people being denied if they satisfy the requirements?
Strong has a gun!
No guns for you!
Firearm Licensing Authority boss rejects calls to arm the nation
KARYL WALKER, Crime/court co-ordinator walkerk@jamaicaobserver.com
Thursday, January 29, 2009
CHAIRMAN of the Firearms Licensing Authority Errol Strong has rejected calls from gun rights lobbyists and members of the public who have been clamouring for Government to relax legislation to allow all law-abiding citizens easier access to owning firearms.
According to Strong, with Jamaica's high propensity for violence, the move could backfire with devastating results.
"In the context of the Jamaican experience, the right for everybody to own a gun could have profound consequences. Quite often attacks on licensed firearm holders and the police are to get the guns," Strong told the Observer.
Strong got the backing of a woman who just this week lost her mother and her three children in a brutal arson/gun attack in the deep rural Jamaican community of Land Top in St Thomas.
The woman, Aretha Smith, said guns are not the answer.
Smith's children - five-year-old Thalia Cousins and her two siblings, Nisha and Jawara, aged two and three years old - and her 55-year-old mother, Angela Lynch were slaughtered during the brutal attack early Monday morning.
Said Smith: "If everyone had a gun then the whole Jamaica would be dead. I don't want none because God will protect me. Whoever did this. them must go down."
The National Gun Rights Association (NGRA), which has won the backing of several Jamaicans in its call to free up the gun licensing system, will this evening host a public meeting at the Altamont Court in Kingston as part of its ongoing lobby.
Under the Firearms Act, citizens 17 years and over can apply for ownership of a firearm at the Firearms Licensing Authority. Applicants will be fingerprinted and vetted to prove that they had no history of mental problems or violence. In addition, applicants should have no previous convictions and will be required to submit photographs and fill out a questionnaire on the safekeeping of firearms. A fee of $6,000 is also required.
But according to NGRA chairman, Shawn Johnson, the process is too tedious. Johnson argued that with Jamaica's out-of-control murder rate, the state should relax the current legislation to allow law-abiding citizens easier access to legal firearms once they are over the age of 21 and able to prove they are competent to own a gun.
He said that while business owners and persons from affluent neighbourhoods are easily granted gun licences and criminals are heavily armed with illegal weaponry, a large number of decent Jamaicans are caught in the crossfire.
"It is the most vulnerable people who are prevented from getting arms. The act is only there to prevent law-abiding citizens from getting firearms. Crime costs the country $83 billion a year so the Government should institute a policy where they train and arm citizens in an effort to cut down that heavy cost," Johnson said.
The NGRA has been lobbying for easier gun ownership for five months and according to Johnson, most of its 550 members are unarmed citizens who are facing difficulties acquiring a firearm.
"We only want a safer Jamaica," Johnson said.
Mark Smith, who operates a route taxi agreed with Johnson.
"As transport people we face danger on the road everyday. Last week one man had to flee from his car after three gunman try hold him up and kill him. If he had a gun then it would be a different story because cutlass can't fight gun," Smith said.
But a Corporate Area teacher, who requested anonymity, said the high level of violence in schools and the negative effect the gun culture has on the minds of the nation's young, made it hard to agree with the gun rights lobbyists.
"There are already too many guns in our society and I think bringing more into the mainstream would only make matters worse," the teacher said.
More than 10 per cent of the 1,611 murders reported last year where committed in the parish of Clarendon but head of the Clarendon Chamber of Commerce, Aldo Brown said he was undecided on the issue.
"On one hand if criminals know that a person has the ability to defend themselves, they must think twice, but on the other hand I don't think we as Jamaicans have the ability or temperament to handle firearms," Brown said.