Reducing demand for guns

With another troubling surge in murders and assaults apparently targeting businessmen and homes, calls for defensive arms are increasing.

Chaguanas Business Chamber president Baldath Maharaj, following the killing of businessman Rishard Ali, called on the government on Wednesday to "give us guns so we can defend ourselves."

TT continues to officially bar political interference in police decisions about the granting of gun licences, and rightly so. Political leader of the National Transformation Alliance, Gary Griffith – a former police commissioner – on Thursday promised more guns issued through firearms user licences (FULs) if elected. But Mr Griffith, himself, should be careful of making such promises as a politician.

The government's effort to scrutinise how he, as a police commissioner, handled the issuance of firearms, through an audit that he challenged before the courts shows how politicising the issue could make the process of granting licences difficult for the police. It is noted that there has been no allegation of misconduct against Mr Griffith.

The clamour for gun licences relates to how effectively can the police respond to, and solve crimes. It has not only been made by businessmen as other arms of law enforcement once made similar appeals. This has since led to the revision of the Firearms Act to allow the prisons commissioner and director of the Strategic Services Agency to approve issuing FULs to their staff.

Importantly, the approvals of FULs should be more efficient and transparent, ensuring that qualified individuals with the training and experience to handle guns are licensed to carry them.

Internal controls on the process are also necessary to guard against corruption within the service. Police investigations resulted in eight officers being charged for misbehaviour in public office for fast-tracking the granting of licences, a procedure that has the potential to put guns in unprepared hands.

A critical factor in the debate is the flow of illegal weapons in TT, and region-wide.

The region must collectively demand that arms trading nations, of which the largest is the US, act more decisively on the illegal export of weapons. TT recently signed on to a proposal by Mexico to take action against US gun makers; and in March, TT announced the formation of the IMPACS Crime Gun Intelligence Unit, an action arm to reduce illegal gun importation.

The successful trial of two TT nationals participating in a gun-smuggling operation in Florida is a small step forward, but crackdowns on illegal gun exports to the Caribbean will have to be matched by deeper defences against all avenues of potential import to these islands.

Reducing illegal imports and controlling legal stockpiles are important components of any initiative to reduce gun proliferation, but rebuilding civil society confidence in their personal safety is the only way to reduce demand for gun licences.