Many businesspersons who are otherwise engaged in legal commercial activities are fuelling a growing demand for firearms, according to police.
This is forcing police officials to issue a new warning that targets more than just firearms traffickers and “thugs” terrorizing innocent residents.
Top police officials told the Bahama Journal today that the demand for guns is burgeoning and some citizens who police regarded as partners in the war on crime are actually criminals themselves, disregarding laws relating to illegal firearms.
Police say this is a new and growing class of criminals but the members of this new class do not consider themselves criminals.
A key police official said today that law enforcement officers are dealing with “a culture of people who feel the need to possess a handgun for protection from criminals.”
“While they feel that they may be getting these firearms to protect themselves, what is actually happening is that they are in a great way contributing to the growing illicit firearms trade,” Superintendent of Police Marvin Dames said.
“We are finding that what many of these businesspersons are saying is that ‘If they aren’t going to give it to me legitimately, then I am going to get it illegally.'”
He said there is a perception among many business owners that the crime situation is out of hand and they need to be able to protect themselves, even if they do so illegally.
“It is against the law to carry a firearm,” Mr. Dames said. “Firearms traffickers are apparently ordering more weapons from their suppliers because the demand is there.
“The perception by some persons who own businesses is that they need a firearm to feel secure, but that is a myth because what it leads to, in many instances, is that many more innocent people could be hurt. Once you get that firearm, you are going to feel a need to shoot yourself out of situations.”
Police officials say 65 percent of the firearms that come into the country can be traced to suppliers in Florida. Commissioner Paul Farquharson recently stationed one of his officers in the Florida area to help break the illegal firearms trade.
Officials say another 23 percent of the illegal weapons that enter the country can be traced to Atlanta, Georgia.
“There are persons out there who are seriously engaged in the business of trafficking illicit firearms,” Mr. Dames said. “They are apparently ordering more.”
He sent a warning to businesspersons and homeowners.
“If you are caught, certainly you will be charged like anyone else,” he said. “It’s as simple as that.”
The increase in the use of firearms has police particularly concerned, so much so that they have introduced new measures to deal with this problem.
Commissioner Farquharson said earlier this month, “I wish to focus particularly on the armed robber and guns in this country.”
There was a 22 percent increase in firearm seizures in 2002 with police confiscating 188 illegal firearms. This was up from 147 in 2001.
A gun was used in all of the seven murders that have taken place so far for the year, as well as in several robberies.
Last Friday night, two men were shot in two separate armed robberies, one at Harding Food Store on Wulff Road, the other at the law offices of former Cabinet Minister Algernon Allen, on Dowdeswell Street.
Police also reported today that four masked men, two of them carrying guns, robbed a Haitian family in Peardale last night. Police said the robbers spoke Creole.
The Bahama Journal
