All Jamaican crime plans will fail until they recognise that the Jamaican citizens (being defenceless prey against criminal men and women who will “never” be stripped of their illegal arms) must be empowered to help in the fight against violent crime. It’s not the job of the police to prevent armed robberies, burglary, home invasions, rapes and murders and, frankly, no reasonable person could call on the 10,000 police and 3,000 soldiers to be instantly available to protect each of the 2.8 million citizens against these things. A criminal in your home can reach you in a few seconds.
Could the police reach you faster if you call them? What if you live in a remote area or somewhere isolated? How fast could help arrive? Running away is not always an option. The elderly and people with disabilities, for the most part, simply do not have the option. Running away might also save your skin but it won’t save the loved ones you protect for which you have a responsibility to shelter from harm.
Jamaica has had more than 34 years of experience with gun control and we can say resoundingly that it does not work. The cries of “get those guns” are cries of mass hysteria and shared delusions. The American military and Coast Guard have been unable to prevent most contraband from entering their shores. How can we expect our security forces to prevent all illegal guns from entering our island? For all the hundreds of guns that are recovered by the police each year, there are hundreds more that have not been detected. The criminal gunmen will always have guns. Leaving good people defenceless against violent criminals who have shown their commitment to taking lives is a sin.
To those who would say that Jamaicans are barbarians who cannot be entrusted with guns because they are incapable of resolving their disputes amicably, I would call those people bigots, classists, elitists and possibly even racists. Jamaicans are not an inferior people. If Jamaicans were so hot-headed and incapable of resolving disputes peacefully, we would see the masses hacking each other to death with machetes or any other weapons at their disposal. Jamaicans are not murderers by nature. It is the criminal scum who are in the minority with nationwide notoriety who have given us that false notion. Jamaicans — the majority of which are peace-loving rural folk — condemn violence. Let us not use bigoted arguments to prevent good people from having effective means of self-defence.
When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.
Why do I do this? By encouraging others to become able to defend themselves effectively, I also gain personal security. A defenceless population is an easy target for crime. A population that can defend itself is not.
1. Self-defence is a right. You have a right to life as declared by the UN Declaration of Human Rights but how can you enforce your right to life if you have no *effective* means to defend it?
2. Guns are inanimate objects. They do not have a mind of their own. They are tools that do the bidding of the person manipulating them. Guns *are* legal in Jamaica and you can receive a permit for the firearms that you own. The problem is that there is still some amount of elitism where issuing of permits is concerned. A person must be considered worthy before the state allows him to have a permit to obtain a firearm.
3. Licensed firearms are practically never used in commiting crimes. All permit holders in Jamaica are required to do a ballistics test before they receive the firearm permit. If they try to use their gun in a crime, the police will immediately know who did it and come to the person’s house and arrest him. It is unlikely that such a licensed firearm holder would commit a crime anyway. To receive a permit, you must not have had a criminal conviction. I.e., law-abiding citizens are just that: law-abiding.
4. Criminals don’t use licensed firearms to commit crimes. Their guns are high-powered weapons smuggled in from all over. It’s already illegal to obtain and carry a gun without a permit but criminals don’t care because they don’t respect laws. Result? They carry guns anyway (without permits) and often turn them on innocents.
5. Criminals prefer unarmed victims. They are so bold in Jamaica because they really do not expect anybody to return fire. This is why one guy can enter a bar and order everybody to get flat and proceed to execute 5 people as happened in Bog Walk in 2007. In Jamaica, there are about 3 guns per 100 persons.
6. Laws that take guns away from law-abiding citizens embolden and help criminals. Or: When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.
7. Do you believe that you will ever face a violent situation? Will you or a family member ever be raped? Will you or a loved one ever be mugged? Will somebody try to enter your home? Hoping that it doesn’t happen to you is not a survival solution. If any of these things happened (God forbid), would you think:
a. These men are disobeying laws that prohibit them from carrying firearms
b. I wish the police were here right now
c. I wish I had pepper spray
d. I wish I had a gun
8. Gun control — the act of taking away firearms from law-abiding citizens or making it more difficult for them to obtain — has *never* been demonstrated to lower crime rates anywhere. In fact, gun control has been linked to increases in violent crimes . How strange? No. It’s actually common sense. Law-abiding citizens are just that. They are law-abiding. They don’t plan crimes. They use their guns for self-defence. Criminals get guns anyway you take it. You can’t stop criminals from getting guns as we see by the numerous firearms recovered by the police. If you take away the means of defending themselves from law-abiding citizens then already armed criminals will find it easier to have their way with them.
9. Many people are capable of living in harmony with each other. Psychopaths and other anti-social individuals lack the very things that enable you to cooperate in society. They are intra-species predators who delight in causing others suffering. There is no reforming them and they simply do not understand mercy. Think about the murders of babies, women and the elderly in this country that seem almost never to have a point. Predators are intent on using violence. Will you let them?
10. The state is not your nanny. The police are not under any obligation to risk their lives to save yours. The police carry firearms including fully automatic rifles to defend *their* lives. There are about 13,000 members of the security forces, 10,000 of which are police and 3,000 of which are soldiers. They *cannot* prevent crime from happening to 2.8 million people. Their function is to gather evidence by examining the bodies of victims for clues and possibly use those clues to locate and arrest suspects.
Imagine: You decide to apply for a firearm permit. The government issues you a firearm permit. You purchase a gun and the ballistics test is done on it so that the police can identify your firearm whenever it is used in any kind of shooting. With your new firearm, would you:
a. hold up the nearest business
b. go after your enemies and shoot them
c. remain the law-abiding citizen that you are
d. be even more polite than before since you really want to avoid conflicts of any kind
Jamaica crime plan? Let us have GUNS!
