As part of their refocused effort to target illegal weapons, senior police officials indicated on Monday that there is growing concern about gun rentals in the country.
Chief Superintendent Christopher McCoy said one of the concerns the police have is that the same weapons are being used to commit some crimes, and intelligence suggests that criminals are able to rent weapons and return them, allowing other criminals to rent the same weapons for the commission of their crimes.
“There is gun for hire where you might have one or two individuals in Bain Town, Fox Hill or South Beach who have illegal firearms in their possession,” said Mr. McCoy, who pointed out that these may all be rented weapons.
Police said they’ve seized nearly 40 illegal firearms in the country for the year and while they say some people may consider that number to be small, that is a significant find.
“There is a lot of work that sometimes goes into getting one firearm off the streets, ” said Chief Superintendent Marvin Dames, who was a guest on Love 97’s “Issues of the Day” along with Mr. McCoy.
“There are persons out there in the community who are very aware as to who are trafficking the weapons, who are in possession of firearms, who are renting firearms-when we find out who these persons are, we expose them and we arrest them and put them before the courts.”
Mr. Dames said the key to the police’s crackdown on illegal firearms and crime in general is public support. He noted that because The Bahamas imports a great deal of its goods, weapons are also coming in tucked away in what would initially appear to be legitimate imports.
Asked by the show’s host, Wendall Jones, whether he was admitting that the country has a national security problem, Mr. Dames pointed out, “In sixty-five percent of our armed robberies, the weapon of choice was a firearm. In more than 70 percent of our homicides [firearms were used]-so this certainly is a serious concern.”
But he said this is a global concern that “we all have to come to grips with.”
Mr. McCoy said at a press conference on Sunday that the new operation to target illegal firearms is a three-month long operation, but police emphasized on Monday that their crackdown on guns would continue as long as there was a problem with illegal firearms.
“The problem of firearms was with us from way back during the beginning of the drug trade,” Mr. McCoy said.
“What you have now are criminals who are trafficking in firearms itself. So in addition to having firearms in the hands of the drug dealers, you have these criminal enterprises where criminals are now trafficking firearms, so that is why we see this kind of proliferation around New Providence.”
He pointed to the homicide that took place in Pinewood Gardens week before last, saying that it’s “alarming” that juveniles were responsible for that crime. One juvenile was charged with murder last week in relation to that matter.
“Police are concerned because we’re noticing that firearms are now reaching the hands of juveniles,” Mr. McCoy said.
One week after the shooting death of businessman Keith Carey, the issue of businesspeople being permitted to carry weapons was again raised on the Love 97 programme with Mr. Dames saying police are equally concerned that some businesspeople are carrying illegal weapons as a means of protection.
But he said the law would not be lenient as it regards this practice, even if businesspeople make the claim that they are merely seeking to protect themselves.
“That does not justify a businessman going out on the streets to a gun trafficker and say ‘I need to purchase a firearm’ because once that happens, the trafficker then realizes that he has a market whereby he can bring in more firearms and sell them,” Mr. Dames said.
“You then begin to inundate the streets of The Bahamas with firearms.”
He indicated that it is a vicious cycle because the fact that businesspeople are helping to keep the gun trade alive increases the likelihood that firearms also get into the hands of criminals who are trying to rob, kill or commit other crimes, including armed robberies at business houses.
“The gun trade is growing,” Mr. Dames said while on the show.
By: Candia Dames, The Bahama Journal
