Guns, roses and the law of Moses

THE EDITOR: There is all this hype of a gun amnesty from John Public, Joe Public and Jack Public who don’t have a clue about law enforcement or national security or how criminals operate in the ghettos. I read an article late last year by an international journalist about a gun amnesty/buy back in Brazil where over three hundred thousand firearms were retrieved. As it turned out they discovered that a great percentage were once legally owned and subsequently sold illegally to criminal elements, thereby making a sham of the programme. Since Brazil is also a gun-manufacturing country, more firearms could be legally obtained and then illegally sold again. All you have to do is bribe a corrupt official, a rogue police officer or any greedy John Public, Joe Public or Jack Public who will falsely report the loss or theft of their firearm while they sell it to the criminals and simply obtain another.

In TT we have businessmen calling on the Commissioner to issue them with firearms, many of whom are untrained and are held up and their firearms taken away by bandits, while some are carelessly lost or suspiciously misplaced. Remember too Venezuela is also a gun-producing country and is our closest neighbour, which virtually puts guns into our hands. A successful gun amnesty in TT is just an illusion, mainly because these bad boys and gangsters will never give up the tools of their trade and protection and be caught poor and defenceless. The harsh reality in all this is that many are already marked for death because they themselves have done it to others and are getting it done to them in return, ‘‘collateral damage’’ or ‘‘reciprocity,’’ and no one can argue with that, the record speaks.

Check the percentage of gang/drug related murders with guns against robbery/murders or crimes of passion, it is within the upper eighty percent and thus goes the cycle which will not stop now or anytime soon. When the Government finds the ways and means to stop the drugs and guns from entering the country, then we will return to some semblance of civility. Without a gun in the hands of these young illiterate cowardly criminals they are just a big bag of boo with nothing remaining but a damaged ego to their false machismo. My advice to them is if you want to get rich, try dying, and you will then realise posthumously that it is better to be poor and humble, for it is the poor man who will eat a little and live long. Finally, when you worship the gun, expect roses on your grave, like the law of Moses, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. The general idea is not to ask for or buy back but to rigorously take them from the criminals by force if need be.

LESLIE CRAIGWELL
Carenage