I often tell my children that the most important consideration in making decisions is not love and hate, legal or illegal, right or wrong, but rather ‘what is the logical solution’.

Laws, after all, are relative to the system that created them. Remember the ‘apartheid’ law.

The gun control issue in the United States is a hotbed of politics and passion. It is front and centre in the news again because of the recent shootings in Buffalo, New York and Texas.

I think the time has come to remove both the aforementioned political biases and understandable passion and replace them with logical thinking.

The first point everyone is choosing to ignore is that there are 300 guns for every American citizen already within the borders of the United States. So if you were to ban all sales of guns to all categories of persons you would never be able to create a shortage of guns in the United States in less than 50 years.

Second, the country is fiercely divided on this issue and there is the potential that any attempt to subvert the rights guaranteed to states to determine the legal position on specific issues such as gun control will result in massive civil push back in keeping with a civil war.

Third, it simply can’t be allowed to continue that people are being mowed down by fanatics or idiots masquerading as activists.

I think they really need to study Jamaica to help to guide them to a solution to this problem.

Jamaica, hands down, has the most efficient gun control regulation system in the world.

There are many things I disagree with in respect of their conservatism, but I can’t take that from them.

The ballistics records, the immediate determination of a criminal record and the requirement for a special branch green light are really enviable from an analysis of an efficient system.

However, despite this efficiency, Jamaica tops planet Earth in murder rates more often than not.

The reason for this dichotomy is living proof that registered weapon control is not a mechanism to prevent gang murders, but rather to prevent domestic murder and violence triggered by spontaneity.

The answer to America’s epidemic of mass shooting is not simplistic. It is not a solution that will come cheaply. It is not a solution that everyone will like. It certainly cannot be achieved by restricting good people from accessing weapons.

A ‘people’ under threat don’t disarm themselves. That is ridiculous. There is a genuine threat from mad people, fanatics and plain criminal-minded cowards, to slaughter people who aren’t in a position to defend themselves. So the solution must be geared to answer the threat.

Solution one. America just spent $1 trillion in Afghanistan, over two decades, to avenge 9/11. It’s money well spent. It will make future governments of that nation and the world less likely to promote terrorism and shelter terrorists. The only thing bloodletters like them understand is a bomb on their porch.

Now it’s time to defend your country again. This time from a domestic threat. Every school must have armed personnel and infrastructure to prevent an attack. Malls as well. Anywhere that arms are required to defend the weak, the Government — the same Government that just spent $1 trillion in the Middle East — must provide the resources to defend vulnerable people within the United States. It’s not going to be cheap. Neither was Iraq, Afghanistan nor the preventable measures to defend Saudi Arabia.

There must also be a massive thrust to arm the good guy, balanced by an equal thrust to prevent the bad guy from being armed, at least with registered weapons.

This, therefore, means that there has to be some level of gun control regulation. The bar to ban must be high, but realistic.

No one with juvenile criminal history, no one with expulsions from school for violence, no one with a history of mental illness, domestic violence, significant alcohol use, drug use, anything that makes you dangerous to society. In essence, the Jamaican system.

The counter though is financial assistance to all other adults to be armed and to access training on an ongoing basis. In essence, arming and training your good citizenry, until they give you a reason to do otherwise.

So bad guys will simply buy guns on the black market, I get it.

However, it’s not that simple. It comes with risks, risks that cowards who kill kids don’t usually want to take.

There is also the angry guy phenomenon. For example, you’re angry your wife is cheating and she’s not stopping. You want to teach ‘Joe’ a lesson. Doesn’t mean that you have the links to buy a gun illegally. I don’t, you likely don’t. So angry husband has to use a machete, ‘Joe’ gets a chance to work those Nikes and runs for the hills.

Guns are deadly. Only good people should have them — all good people should have them.

You must make targets less inviting. This works, trust me. You ever wonder why no one comes over to attack the Jamaica Rifle Association’on Mountain View Avenue? Because they know there are people there with guns willing and able to defend it.

I would seriously discourage anyone from trying it. I have been apart of operations in every garrison in St Catherine, but I wouldn’t push my luck there.

There also is a reason gunmen don’t attack ‘100-Man’ Police Station or C-TOC. Cowards don’t like consequences. You get my point?

The way of life in the United States, unfortunately, will have to change. X-ray entry into malls and other infrastructure at any vulnerable place must be installed and monitored. This is quite common in Israel and Ethiopia. It is sad, but it is what it is. Entry with arms restricted to people in law enforcement or licence holders who have been subject to a process.

This crisis in the United States is a big deal. People are going to have to accept a middle ground and the Government has to decide to spend on it.

This should have been done from Sandy Hook occurred.

It’s time this is fixed once and for all.