Chaguanas West MP Jack Warner has said the Trinidad and Tobago public has lost confidence "in the government’s ability and/or willingness to provide protection and safety to them, their loved ones and their property".In a news release Thursday he said this is clear from the revelation that 41,759 persons have applied for firearm users’ licences over the past eight years.
Read the story: 41,759 applications for guns...
"Sadly, this statistic shows that the crime epidemic is causing our citizens to become increasingly frustrated and desperate, so much so that they are willing to reach such drastic lengths as to apply for gun licences," he said.
Warner said he understands the pain and frustration of these applicants whom he describes as "persons who otherwise would have been satisfied with leaving the matter of dueling bandits up to the law enforcement authorities."
He noted that carrying a gun is a huge mental step that puts the individual and the persons around them, "especially children, at risk from accidental discharge", adding that it also makes them targets for attacks by criminals who want their firearms.
He said these are some of the critical issues that make the statistic even more worrisome.
"The average applicant would have weighed all of these issues against their past experiences, the experiences of their friends, relatives and strangers whom they would have read about in the newspapers falling victims to murderers, robbers, kidnappers and rapists.
"They would have considered the slow and absent response of the under-resourced police to the pleas for help and the blatant disregard to their plight by a government that not only consorts with criminals but knowingly funds the criminal enterprise with taxpayers’ money.
"They would have considered that the government’s grand plan for eradicating crime is the public relations charade of stopping law abiding citizens who are late for work because of traffic and ripping off their tints with a razor blade.
"Sadly, the last resort of this troubled citizenry is not to rely on the social contract and place its safety in the hands of the State but to seek to bear arms through the legal channels against a criminal network that has access to an almost unlimited supply of the most sophisticated weaponry in the world, obtained with ease through illegal channels.
"What is even sadder is that neither the Minister of National Security nor the Prime Minister is concerned enough about the anguish of a population that prefers to stay and build their beloved country rather than migrate to safer shores, to stop the corruption and wastage and to direct the limited and waning resources of the State towards meaningful solutions to our crime problem," Warner said.
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