Gary: UNC, NTA will give citizens firearms

National Transformation Alliance (NTA) leader Gary Griffith is urging law-abiding citizens seeking firearms to protect their families from violent criminals to vote for the UNC/NTA partnership, saying they will facilitate this if they get into government.

He was addressing an NTA rally in Diamond Vale, Diego Martin on Wednesday night. He advocated the "Castle Doctrine" of self-defence, which laws allow persons under attack in their homes to use deadly force in self-defence without a duty to first try to retreat from an intruder.

Griffith derided the advice of a senior police officer to use minimal force against a home invasion. He said if an intruder was armed with a machete or a big stone, a homeowner need not look around to find a matching weapon such as a big stone but should be able to use a firearm.

He voiced support for the wife of a licensed firearm owner who had recently used his firearm to defend the family home, although she was not legally registered to use the firearm and hoped she would not face criminal charges.

Griffith said, "Trinidad and Tobago, I am telling you from now if you want a firearm if you want the right to protect yourself because of the State's inability to protect you, vote for the UNC and the NTA."

On the topic of firearm user's licences (FULs), he alleged that three named top public officers between them had sent him requests for some 70 FULs for their associates when he had been commissioner of police (CoP).

Griffith cited his record as CoP in curbing crime and building public trust in the police as he urged voters to cast their ballots for the NTA and UNC.

Griffith accused the Government of wasting public funds to buy several Austal vessels, which he said are docked at Chaguaramas because they had wanted to replace Damen vessels bought by the previous government.

The funds could instead have been used for pressing problems like fixing roads, he said.

Griffith chided media houses for not interviewing former members of the Police Service Commission over their resignations.

For the August 14 local government elections, he urged electors to vote strategically by supporting their local candidate, whether from the NTA or UNC.

Saying he had learnt how to plan to win during his training at the Sandhurst military institute, he said if opposition forces go in a united effort against the PNM, they would win but in a multiple-party fight, the PNM would win.

He hoped to repeat the People's Partnership's capture of councils in Diego Martin, Arima, San Fernando and Tunapuna/Piarco.

He hopes this time the NTA/UNC could win the Point Fortin Borough Corporation.

Earlier, the NTA's Nicole Dyer-Griffith expressed fears that she and her husband's phones are being illegally wiretapped by "politically motivated" police.