Is history repeating itself?

Dear Editor,

The Government, in the height of a crime wave, is speaking about too many legal guns being 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 that 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 chambers due to lack of evidence.

Persons have already pointed out that every legal weapon has 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 a preparation by the regime to rescind the licences of some persons?

When the PPP/C came to office is 1992, it established a system of priority for granting licences. Three categories were identified. Business persons, the reason for this is clear, this group of persons are the main targets for bandits; farmers, to protect their crops and livestock; and Amerindians, this is important for 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.

This was seen as racial discrimination, since Indian-Guyanese farmers were the victims of that policy.

Now too, at a time when the crime rate is high, this announcement appears to be ominous.

The first target would be the suspected PPP/C supporters. Disarming these people would make them even more vulnerable to the criminals. With the knowledge of an unarmed business sector and unarmed farmers, criminals will become emboldened.

It is also of interest to note that whenever bandits are captured or killed during robberies, the regime makes statements of condemnation. Recall, too, the riots in the Georgetown Prisons when the Government sent two senior ministers to speak with the prisoners.

Contrast that with the attitude towards the victims of crimes. No sympathy has been expressed or no visits have been made by members of the regime.

Maybe the criminals have sensed this; that is why when the two bandits were captured in Eccles earlier this month, they were cursing the crowd.

Is history repeating itself?

Sincerely,

Donald Ramotar

Former President of

Guyana