Dear Editor,

Despite the massive death toll and the large numbers of infected people from this global pandemic coronavirus, the guns are still barking in Jamaica, making the country look like a battlefield or like we are living in the time of the Wild, Wild West. People continue to die senselessly and untimely by the merciless hands of these gun boys, who are like ‘leggo beasts’ all over the place, shooting down people like birds.

Even with so much dislocation from the coronavirus it seems to be just business as usual, no change to the onslaught on people.

Since the past few weeks many people have been murdered, including a 70-year-old woman. And recently a young tourist was brutally murdered.

But what is very serious and troubling is that we are not catching these gun pests so that they can face the music. We are only apprehending the culprits of domestic disputes. We are failing miserably in getting on top of these criminals. And this gives them an advantage to repeat their crimes.

I remember these words from a Crime Stop ad: “Stop the guns before they stop more people!” But we have not been seeing any positive results from that.

This coronavirus has put us on bended knees to the point where we may have to lock down the country. Likewise, we should lock down the country in the fight to lower our high murder rate. We must not get used to our people dying like flies in this country.

Donald J McKoy

donaldmckoy77@gmail.com