ASSISTANT Commissioner of Police Elan Powell made an appearance on TVJ’s Smile Jamaica on Tuesday morning to update us on the Jamaica Constabulary’s (JCF) crime plan. His statistics on gun murders were frightening! His summary of the cause of our problems was wrong!

Guns are our problem, he declared. If we can get the guns off the streets our murder stats will fall. Our borders are porous and hard to police. We have guns coming in from Haiti and other places, and even through our fortified ports in barrels and refrigerators, he revealed.

Respectfully, ACP Powell, guns are not our real problem! Here are our three real problems which must be solved if we are to have any hope of transforming our current gun and murder problem.

1 Stop popularising gun crimes

The typical newspaper or broadcast media report begins like this: “A gunman killed three people at a bar…” It makes using a gun sound like a legitimate profession. Think about it. Have you ever read or heard a report that says: “A stone man killed three people at a bar…” Or, “A stick man murdered three people today”?

Our media reporting has made gun use a profession to which a child can aspire. I took to church with me one Sunday a six-year-old from a known disadvantaged community. I called him to the podium to introduce himself and tell the good church people what he wanted to be. “My name is Michael…and I want to be a gunman.” You can imagine the shock that rippled through the congregation. But who else could he want to grow up to be? His most influential role models, up to that time in his life, were those around him doing things with guns, that even responsible media such as TVJ reported on in a heroic way. So stop popularising gun crimes. Instead, report like this: “A coward used a gun to…”

2 Start connecting gun crimes to gun providers

The tendency is to pursue the gun users, but getting a handle on gun crime needs a deeper look. Unlike the USA, Jamaica does not have many legal retail outlets for gun purchases. In the USA, any child with an ID that says 18 or older can walk into a nicely stocked store and view and purchase a gun. But not so in Jamaica. In addition, social workers and community advocates, who work with low-income vulnerable, inner-city or rural males, can testify that a male with a $70,000 (say, US$700) gun in his waistband will approach and ask you to “let off a lunch money!” Therefore, the gun in his waist was provided by someone in a better financial position than his.

Until we treat the gun providers like we treat the gun users our gun crimes will never stop. Imagine if the JCF developed the expertise (and the will) to trace guns to gun providers. Then when a gun user meets his/her end in a shootout with the police, or a sentence has been handed down in court to the gun user, the police would simply pick up the gun provider and give him/her the privilege of the identical sentence. I am dreaming of a new Jamaica, I know. ACP Powell, until we treat the gun providers like we treat the gun users our gun crimes will never stop.

3 Increase our reverence for life

This is the greatest of the three problems. As you read this, can’t you remember a moment when you were disrespected and you immediately felt anger and you wished death and mayhem on the person, or plotted in your mind to kill and maim? Even the most pious Christian pastor will admit to this.

Like the proverbial story of the frog sitting in slowly warming to boiling water, we have got to this place as a murderous society. I was at the gym and a discussion began about a prominent lawyer who had been murdered. A sweet Christian lady contributed, “I knew he was going to be killed one day because he had such an abrasive personality!” My retort: “Since when in Jamaica did an abrasive personality mean a person should be killed?” Of course, she protested, but the point is clear; we have all, either overtly or covertly, deliberately or inadvertently, lost our reverence for life.

That makes us all potential murderers with or without guns. Guns are not our problem; they only make the murder easier and more cowardly.

Regain our reverence for life, treat our gun providers like we treat our gun users, stop popularising gun crimes, and we should return to a safe place as a nation on our journey to becoming the place to live, work, raise families, and do business (Vision 2030 Jamaica). Ignore these three areas and we may find ourselves taking a detour into mayhem and genocide like Rwanda, Eritrea, or the Balkans. Do we really want to go there?

Michael Aiken is a minister of religion, community advocate and the convenor of Buff Bay United For Life (BBUFL), a community group established to eliminate domestic and child abuse and stick, stone or gun crimes in Buff Bay, Portland. He is also a consultant with Training Dynamics and Consultants Ltd and a research fellow with multi-disciplinary research institution ARTIS. Send comments to the Observer or mandrewa@aol.com.