VIOLENCE in the country is a national disgrace and the priority concern of all right-thinking Guyanese, so the time is long past for drastic measures to be put in place to arrest the prevalent use of weapons in the perpetration of violent crimes.A most frightening development is the apparent easy access of all ages of criminals desirous of owning any type of weapon; which prompts the question: what is being done by the authorities to confront and deal with this deadly threat to the society at large? No one can really feel safe from criminal elements in the society, particularly business persons and private citizens who, for one reason or another carry large sums of cash on their persons.
Then there are areas where gun usage – such as domestic violence, unstable minds leading to “jealous” killings; and still further, areas such as acts of assassination and associated deaths linked to money laundering make national headlines with great frequency. There are many instances where there is the unlawful use of firearms, but the point being made here is that accessibility to firearms appears to be much too easy and worry-free.
Urgent and more serious thought must be devoted to elimination of the use of guns in the wider society; and it must be conceded that the peculiarity of borders in our country poses real problems of monitoring movement of cross-border trafficking, thus rendering easy smuggling of illicit commodities – such as drugs and arms. However, an effort should be made to elevate this dialogue to a national concern and to solicit the assistance of the opposition and all other stakeholders to participate in confronting this deadly scourge.
How about calling for a voluntary handing-in of weapons, even perhaps an agreement to pay for all illegal weapons within a stated period of time?
This could be the start of an attempt to address the prevalence of the use of guns.