Chuck urges relatives of gunmen to help get rid of illegal firearms
Published:Saturday | December 31, 2022 | 12:50 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Justice Minister Delroy Chuck has issued a fresh appeal for relatives of criminals to help rid the streets of illegal firearms as the island grapples with a high level of crime.
Speaking at Thursday’s commissioning ceremony for 43 new justices of the peace in St James, Chuck stressed that the police do not have enough manpower to locate and confiscate all illegal guns without the public’s support.
“We have a problem which we need to resolve, as somehow, young men between ages 15 and 25 find comfort with other young men, and those who have nothing worthwhile to do always find something idle or unworthy to do, and that is how you get gangs being formed. When they form the gangs, their main focus is power and how they can get power, and they will ensure that they control communities with that power, and what gives them the power is the gun,” said Chuck.
“We need to ask the families – the girlfriends, the mothers, the sisters, the fathers – to expose where the guns are,” Chuck added.
Chuck also noted that illegal guns present a danger to the gunmen’s relatives when the weapons are hidden in their homes.
“What these families should know is that when a gun is hidden in your home, it is a suicide bomb you have right there in your house. When you have it there, there are opponents of that hoodlum who has it in the home, who will want it, and they will come to get it,” Chuck explained.
“If we can get these guns off the streets and out of the neighbourhoods of Jamaica, our murder rate would go down enormously because guns are responsible for close to 70 per cent of the murders, not to mention the injuries they cause, the burdens they impose on the hospitals, and the pain and suffering caused to the families of the victims. And these very same hoodlums, when you catch them, it is the same families who are protecting them who have to visit them in jail and have to carry foodstuffs to them every week or month, and have to employ lawyers,” Chuck continued.
Police data indicate that up to December 27, some 1,481 murders had been recorded in Jamaica for this this year, 18 more than the 1,463 murders seen over the corresponding period in 2021.
The St James Police Division recorded the highest number of murders with 197 killings, followed by St Catherine North, with 144, and Westmoreland with 140 homicides.
Some 1,152 shootings were recorded in Jamaica up to December 27, a decline from the 1,251 over the corresponding period in 2021.