Dear Editor,
The government, at the height of a crime wave, is speaking about too many legal guns around. It seems that someone misled the President into saying that some legal gun owners rent their weapons to criminals. The way it was put one gets the impression that the President believes this is a widespread practice. However, no proof, no examples were offered to substantiate that claim. If the President had made that statement in Parliament he might have been asked by the Speaker to leave the chamber due to lack of evidence.
Persons have already pointed out that every legal weapon had to have had a forensic test by the police. They keep those records and check them whenever a crime is committed to see if they can find a match from their records. This is widely known. We have had no reports of this phenomenon. Therefore, we may ask why is such a statement being made when there is no case or at best very, very few? Is this preparation by the regime to rescind the licences of some persons?
When the PPP/C came to office in 1992, it established a system of priority for granting licences. Three categories were identified: first, business persons, since this group is the main target of bandits; second, farmers, so they could protect their crops and livestock; and third, Amerindians, because firearms are important to them in their pursuit of hunting.
Historically the PNC, due to their anti-people policies had denied these groups permission to own their own weapons. Indeed, one of the early moves of the PNC regime when it took power in 1964, was to take away the shotguns from farmers that an earlier PPP government had granted. Now too, at a time when the crime rate is high this announcement appears ominous.
One cannot help but wonder if the regime is pursuing a course in which Indian Guyanese would be the most affected. With the knowledge of an unarmed business sector and unarmed farmers, criminals will become emboldened.
Yours faithfully,
Donald Ramotar
