Once again our nation is in pain.
 
Another piece of the soul of this nation died last night. Our innocence was assassinated and we have once again been assaulted by this culture of death.

My office has been informed by the police that two persons are confirmed dead, four seriously wounded and two others sustained minor injuries following an attack by masked gunmen on bystanders outside a night club in Cayon.
 
The police are continuing their investigations, as we speak – and we allow those investigations to continue.
 
But as they do, we collectively hurt, because at least two members of our nation are no longer with us, the victims of the latest spate of violence in the Federation.
 
We collectively mourn because families are tonight mourning their loved ones, who all they did was hang out, as young people would do, on the streets of our supposedly safe nation.
 
This is not Beirut. This is not Baghdad. This is Cayon – and our people are expected to be safe.
 
Any killing, any time is painful and unnecessary. But with the holiday season approaching and with families seeking to get together for Christmas, it is even more painful.
 
We can ill-afford a culture of death to take over our land; to add to our troubles in a time of hopelessness and uncertainty.
 
To our young people, especially our young men, we beseech you to learn more about how to engage in conflict resolution, understand that this culture of death is foreign to our nation.
 
Please learn to walk away from every contentious situation and keep both your ego and emotions in check.
 
Last night's killing brought to 22 – the amount of people killed in our Federation this year – worse than the record of 17, and with still four weeks to go in the year.
 
But more alarm bells are going off in this latest one. It is more brazen and more senseless than many of the others.
 
Criminals are bringing this nation under siege and the government is appearing to be helpless in doing anything about it.
 
How many more must die before we see more decisive action?
 
Given the size of the population, our murder rate is one of the highest in the Caribbean per capita.
 
This is a record none of us could be proud of, and all of us must work towards making next year a different time.
 
With every difficult situation comes an opportunity for change; an opportunity to search ourselves and figure out how we can all make a difference for the better.
 
That is what our party has been advocating for a long while. We cannot accept our society as it is, shrugging our shoulders and claiming that is the way things are.
 
It's not the way things are supposed to be.

Whether it is in our personal lives or in the life of the nation – we know that things must get better.
 
As politicians, we have to work to make sure that our citizens are more secure and that this cloud of hopelessness is removed from over our nation.

We have to provide more positive opportunities for our youth -- more training, more jobs. Simply put, more hope.

We have to invest in our law enforcement agencies so they we can be better able to protect the citizens.

We have to embark on a drive to get the illegal guns from off the street and from the hands and pockets of our youths.
 
We cannot give in to this culture of death. We cannot fail our children. We cannot fail the Nation.
 
We will never accept that this is the way it is. We can make the difference. We will make a difference.