BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – FROM time immemorial, man has been killing his fellow men. From the Christian perspective, it started with Cain and Abel and that incident was interpreted as an act of murder. It was condemned by God who, in His Commandments to the children of Israel, said: “Thou shalt not kill.” - Exodus 20:13 (King James Version).
Since then, there have been countless wars, rumours of war, genocides and, metaphorically speaking, more murders than the stars above.
On October 3, 2002, Jamie Holguin of the Associated Press had reported that the World Health Organisation said: “One person commits suicide about every 40 seconds, one person is murdered every 60 seconds and one person dies in armed conflict every 100 seconds.”
In the twin-island Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis, with a population of just over 55,000, statistics have shown that there have been 120 homicides between 2011 and September 2015, with the highest being 35 in 2011.
Almost all of those homicides were gun-related and, to date, the majority is yet to be solved.
Of the 120 homicides, 22 were committed in this year along with 10 shooting incidents in which 12 people had suffered injuries. There were also 12 other shooting incidents, but no one was reportedly injured.
With all of these gun-related crimes being committed in the Federation, citizens are asking: “From where do these criminals get guns?”
This beautiful, tiny Federation does not manufacture guns, but it has very porous borders and guns and ammunition can stealthily enter its shores by boat in similar fashion as the 124 pounds of marijuana did on Thursday, October 1, 2015 in Conaree.
Evidence has also surfaced that, in the past, guns and ammunition had entered the Federation through its two main ports of entry.
It is believed that the majority of homicides is gang and drugs-related; gang in the exertion of dominance and revenge, and drugs in the protection of turf.
So far, 2015 has seen 15 illegal firearms and a quantity of ammunition being removed from the Streets of St. Kitts and Nevis. And with the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force’s Six-Point Plan, designed to combat crime, specifically major crimes which include those commissioned by gun, it is touted that many more firearms are expected to be unearthed.
But what certainty is there to back this view?
The Police Force, Customs and Excise Department and Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine all have K-9 Units. These animals are highly-trained ‘sniffer dogs’, but are they trained to put their exceptional scent detection abilities to locate firearms and ammunition? If yes, why not embark on gun and ammo operations with their employ? If not, the Police High Command needs to recommend the purchase of a few of them to the Government.
Yes, this writer agrees that it is a costly venture, but can you put a price to human life?
Another suggestion to assist the police in reducing gun-related crimes in the Federation is Gun Amnesty.
This writer had previously made that suggestion at one of the Prime Minister’s Monthly Press Conferences and Superintendent Hilroy Brandy of the Nevis Division insinuated that it would not be a feasible venture. He asked what if the police, after conducting forensic examinations, found that one of the firearms was involved in a homicide.
It is a known fact that in certain cases, especially homicides, the files do not close. They are shelved and reopened when there is substantial evidence to charge and prosecute the alleged perpetrators. We have seen this in the American justice system. It is called “cold case”.
But as the proverb says in Shakespeare’s Hamlet Act Three Scene Two: “While the grass grows the horse starves.”
Should the nation wait one, two or three decades before these homicides are solved? While waiting on the seemingly slothfulness of their solvability, can law-abiding citizens be assured that the homicide rate would be significantly reduced?
No, this writer would say, and he would certainly implore the authorities to quickly launch a Gun Amnesty programme, despite naysayers.
Gun Amnesty has proven to be a successful programme in many countries the world over.
For example, in 2003, BBC had reported that in England more than 1,485 firearms and 34,677 rounds of ammunition were surrendered to the Metropolitan Police.
South Africa, in May 2005, 25,418 illegal firearms were handed in to police before amnesty had ended in June of that year, and 34,302 legal firearms were voluntarily handed over to the authorities.
Reports also stated that the 2009 gun amnesty was a huge success for the New South Wales Police and New South Wales Government in Australia. As a result of the public education campaign, the New South Wales Police had received 4,323 firearms, including 3,173 rifles, 937 shotguns and 213 handguns; 90 replica firearms; 1,034 pieces of ammunition; 219 firearm parts; and 153 telescopic sites.
In sister CARICOM state Guyana, some 175 weapons and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition were turned in to police since September 1, 2015 when the one-month amnesty was announced. The Government had extended it by some two weeks, and on the final day three sniper air rifles and a .38 revolver as well as fifty-five .38, twenty-nine 9mm and thirty-one .30 carbine ammunition were handed in to the police.
Should similar success be achieved in St. Kitts and Nevis, it would mean that those firearms could no longer get into the hands of individuals with criminal intent, or could they be used to harm people in moments of anger by those who had them in their possession.
Definitely, if the Government should launch such a programme, for fear of being arrested, many criminals and individuals who are in possession of illegal firearms and ammunition will not be willing to surrender them to the police.
This writer would therefore like to suggest that in the planning stage of its implementation, Government and the Police High Command should engage members of the Clergy within all hotspots in the Federation and select two leaders from among them; one from each island.
This should be made public, whereby the illegal firearms and ammunition could be handed over to members of the Clergy who in turn would pass them on to the two leaders. The leaders would then take them to the police.
Additionally, because of that fear, people could also be advised to use Crime Stoppers and state exactly where they had placed firearms and ammunition so that the authorities could find them.
However, at the end of the programme, the Government must amend the Firearms Act to ensure stiffer penalties for people found in possession of illegal firearms and ammunition.
This writer would therefore like to suggest that anyone found with an illegal firearm should be imprisoned for no less than 15 years with hard labour and an additional five years if he/she does not reveal from whom it was purchased, rented, loaned or stolen.
