Obama’s gun control measures leave J’can police hopeful….I smell UN Gun Control Here, How About You?

Sunday, January 20, 2013

LOCAL law enforcement officials are eagerly awaiting the passage of tougher gun control legislation in the United States as they believe tighter laws in that country will result in fewer firearms entering Jamaica illegally.

For years, the security forces have linked the large number of illegal guns in Jamaica to liberal gun control measures in the United States, which make it possible for the local criminal network to obtain guns and slip them through various channels in their bid to unleash violence in communities across Jamaica.

The heightened anticipation comes in the wake of announcements by US President Barrack Obama that the measures are being introduced as part of efforts to reduce tragedies such as that which unfolded in December when a gunman walked into an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut and killed 20 children and six of their teachers, along with his mother and finally himself.

Obama’s announcement came amidst intense debate regarding the US Government’s power to institute tougher gun control measures.

Those opposed to the new gun control measures are basing their arguments on the constitutional provision that states that the right of citizens to bear arms shall not be infringed.  MORE

Gun violence in Jamaica  April 16, 2009

The island of Jamaica with a population of 2.7m people, which is slightly smaller than Connecticut, has one of the highest murder rates in the world.

The figures are chilling – there were 1,674 murders in 2005, up from 1,471 murders the year before. Last year, the number of murders came down to 1,340. The poster is an effort to bring attention to the crisis on the island, which is flooded with guns; non of which is manufactured on the island. Hundreds of guns are finding their way form the United States and now from Jamaica’s poverty stricken neighbor Haiti which is also flooded with cheap guns.

The violence is destabilizing this beautiful island and the government of both political parties are the ones who have sowed the seed of this monster problem.

Jamaica’s Bloody Lesson On Guns

By John Lott Published May 25, 2010

Do gun bans really stop criminals from getting guns? Americans need not look no further than the massive gun battle with armed gangs fighting police and soldiers that took place in Kingston, Jamaica today. At least 30 people were killed in the fighting. It is a huge number for a small island nation of fewer than 3 million people, but unfortunately murder is so common in Jamaica that these murders won’t even be noticed in the annual crime numbers.

With Chicago’s Mayor Daley again claiming that a gun ban is necessary to keep Chicagoans safe, Jamaica and other countries with gun bans might teach Americans a lesson.

Everyone wants to keep guns away from criminals, but the question is: who is most likely to obey the law? In the case of a ban, every instance we have data for shows that when a ban has been imposed, murder rates rise. In America, people are all to familiar with the increased murder rates in Chicago and Washington, D.C..

Jamaica wasn’t always the extremely violent country that it is today (

see the figure here

). Jamaica experienced large increases in murder rates since enacting a handgun bans in 1974. Since the gun ban, Jamaica’s murder rate has soared to become one of the highest in the world, currently at least double that of other Caribbean countries. Jamaica’s murder rate hasn’t sunk below 10 murders per 100,000 people since the gun ban went into effect.

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