On the murder Index, Jamaica stands atop the heap beating out South Africa, Mexico, St Lucia, Belize, Colombia, and Brazil in homicides each year. Last year alone, the tiny nation of under three million people recorded 1498 homicides, an increase over the previous year, which saw 1463 cases of homicide reported to authorities…
The Andrew Holness Government has tabled a new proposal that would repeal and replace the 1976 firearms Act.
The Bill, among other things, would make it a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years for individuals convicted of illegally possessing a firearm or stockpiling three or more firearms or 50 or more rounds of ammunition.
As a decades-long advocate for much stiffer penalties for violent offenders, I believe that 15 years is not a strong enough penalty for someone caught with an illegal firearm.
Let me be clear; no one is forcing anyone to pick up an illegal firearm. Every person who does so makes that decision on their own. A gun is seen as a symbol of power, the power to take the property and life of those without guns.
Because it is a free-will decision and not something forced on young men like explosive belts in war-torn middle eastern countries, every individual deciding to pick up a weapon by default takes on all the attendant risks of being caught with that weapon.
The 1976 Firearm Act has long needed overhaul and repeal. Clearly, the penalties associated with possession are completely out of wack with the severity of having an illegal weapon. There is absolutely no good reason that any law-abiding citizen of Jamaica would be opposed to the most serious penalties for gun possession, given the nation’s high homicide rate and propensity for violence.
In the 47 years since the passage of the existing firearms act, tens of thousands of innocent Jamaicans have been seriously injured and killed, including brave police officers and our military members.
That alone is reason enough to pass a bill with even more teeth than the one proposed, making it a mandatory 15 years for possessing an illegal weapon.
Furthermore, despite the protestations of many, the nation’s liberal criminal coddling judges continue to turn violent offenders caught with illegal weapons back onto the streets immediately after the police arrest them.
It is past time for mandatory penalties for violent offenders. More importantly, it is past time that a bill is passed that sends a clear message to the almighty-appointed judges that the people are the bosses, not them.
The proposed bill does not go nearly far enough in sending the strongest of messages that, as a nation, law-abiding Jamaicans will not stand for the violent lawlessness that has been allowed to continue for far too long.
Despite the shortcomings of the newly proposed bill, the defeated People’s National Party Member from Manchester, who now sits in the upper chamber, and who once held the title of Minister Of National Security, in exasperation as the minister said Jamaica’s crime problem needs divine intervention is now flapping his gums in opposition to the bill.
Last September, as the bill came up for debate in the upper chamber, Peter Bunting dared to open his mouth in opposition to a bill he should have sponsored and pushed as Minister of National Security years prior.
Said Bunting, “focus should instead be placed on ensuring criminals are caught, arguing that criminals know very little about the sanctions for these offenses and therefore would not be phased. “We must understand that this [Bill] is no silver bullet…we’re not in all cases saying some of the penalties may not be more appropriate, but let us not fool ourselves into thinking that just by increasing the severity is going to have a meaningful impact on reducing our violent crime rate”.
What a fucking Jackass!!!!
So let us dissect this nonsense.
(1) Focus should be placed on ensuring criminals are caught.
Police catch criminals and lock them up daily; they are back on the streets immediately through lax and archaic laws and criminal-loving judges abusing the loopholes.
(2)Criminals know very little about the sanctions for these offenses.
This guy headed the security apparatus with no brian. Imagine saying criminals do not know the penalties. That is shockingly revealing to me. Every person who picks up a gun or commits a crime knows beforehand the penalties they are likely to face, and they’re all smarter than Peter Dumb-ting.
So even if they do not know when they face a judge and the mandatory minimum, they will get the message, and guess what? That is how they learn.
(3) They won’t be phased.
They will be phased; the problem is that Peter Dumb-ting and the PNP will be mad.
(4) we must understand the bill is no silver bullet.
No one said it was; the fact that the bill is not a panacea does not mean nothing should be done about violent crime. The PNP hates to support any legislation that deals with Jamaica’s crime pandemic. The party continues to blow smoke up the people’s asses that they care, just not about whether they live or die.
(5) Let us not fool ourselves into thinking that increasing the severity will significantly impact reducing our violent crime rate.
It will do exactly that, and that’s what the People’s National Party is afraid of.
.
.
.
.