BASSETERRE, St Kitts, (CMC) — The Caribbean Community (Caricom) Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (Caricom Impacs) began a four-day meeting here on Monday, with Prime Minister Dr Terrence Drew noting the increased instances of violent crime involving the use of illegal firearms in the region.

“Here in St Kitts and Nevis we can give testimony to this as in the past year we recorded several incidents of gun violence. Further solidifying my point is my country’s current reality where our law enforcement agencies are fully engaged to arrest a crime spike we have been experiencing for the month of April,” Drew told a Caricom Crime Gun Intelligence Unit sensitisation and awareness meeting.

He said St Kitts and Nevis is not immune to the increased incidence of firearms-related crime and that the law enforcement agencies in the two-island federation are “fully engaged to arrest this menace to our society”.

Impacs said the meeting is the first in a series aimed at sensitising and creating awareness as part of its efforts to address gun crime in the region. Other meetings are scheduled to take place in all 15 Caricom member states over the coming months.

“These meetings aim to support Caricom countries in detecting and stemming the wave of firearms-related crimes which are pervading our national and regional borders,” said Lieutenant Colonel Michael Jones, Caricom Impacs executive director.

Impacs said that The Weapons Compass: The Caribbean Firearms Study 2023, noted that: “The Caribbean region suffers from some of the world’s highest rates of violent deaths, with firearms used in the majority of these crimes. Although most homicide victims are men, the Caribbean as a region also faces one of the world’s highest rates of violent deaths among women.”

Drew noted that almost 18 years ago, Caricom Impacs was born out of a collective desire to reduce gun trafficking and violence in the region.

“We have achieved much since then. We have benefited from capacity-building initiatives, explored avenues for sustainable intervention programmes, and implemented international and regional commitments that focus on the reduction of firearms-related violence.

“We have collaborated with various partners and stakeholders on policy issues that redound to the benefit of our region. We continue to work at finding new and innovative ways to advance security. However, like anything else, there is much more work to be done and improvements to be had.”

According to Drew, the presence and prevalence of illegal firearms have been the “bane of our existence in the Caribbean region for quite some time.

It follows that gun violence is a form of crime with which we have long been embattled. There is not a single firearms and ammunition manufacturing facility located here in the Caribbean yet our small island developing states have been locked in this tenuous fight to preserve the lives of our people — our most precious resource”.

Drew underscored that the trafficking of illegal weapons into any nation is a direct breach of its borders, and a threat to the safety and security of every man, woman, and child therein.

“Such actions serve only to erode the efficacy and integrity of the national security apparatuses of our countries here in the Caribbean. As a people and as a nation it is our national duty to learn all that we can in order to arrest this plague and rid our societies of the dark veil of gun violence,” Drew added.