Jamaica ’s three greatest problems that have had to be overcome over the last 200 years were achieving emancipation from slavery, the abject poverty that followed, and the epidemic of murder that has been occurring over the last 52 years.

Murder is the ultimate crime.

When it becomes the culture, as it has in Jamaica, serious measures are required to combat it.

These measures may involve loss of freedom, the right to privacy, and the inconvenience of curfews that control the movement of the public.

The Jamaican Government has prioritised ending the murder epidemic.

There is a complex plan with many tentacles to achieve this noble and required task.

One of those measures is a Firearms Act that puts away offenders for their effective killing period.

You see, very few killers actually commit murder in a sustained manner for their entire life.

It is usually a maximum of 15 years before they meet their demise, which is usually prison or death.

I have watched killers get caught with a handgun, go to prison, come out within three years, kill some more, get caught with a rifle, do eight years, come out, kill some more, then get killed or go to prison for murder.

This Firearms Act takes them out at the first capture, essentially keeping them in prison for the years they would normally be killing.

It also deters a large number of males from entering gangs and subsequently taking their place in the killing cycle.

The Firearms Act, along with other factors, including a significantly resourced, larger, and motivated police force, following a plan that involves conducting operations hundreds of per cent more than ever before, has reaped the success of achieving a murder rate not seen in 30 years.

This Firearms Act is part of the plan, and it is necessary.

Let me make that very clear, we need to have this Firearms Act sending criminals to jail for 15 years and more for simple possession.

That being said, it is necessary to ensure, as much as we can, that people who are not criminals but who have made an error, do not end up in prison for 15 years and have their lives destroyed.

That is why we have judges.

We need to be able to exercise discretion as they evaluate each case on its own merit.

The Firearms Act takes away that discretion.

There is a misunderstanding that it was the judges that created the ‘slap on the wrist culture’ that seems to be occurring for gun offences.

It was never the judges; it was the sentencing guidelines that came about in and around the same period as the mandatory discounts for guilty pleas.

If judges don’t follow guidelines, the sentence can be challenged at the Court of Appeal.

This is not a competence issue.

The judges are quite capable of following sentencing guidelines of 15 years or more while still maintaining the ability to use their discretion.

On any Rubik whatsoever, Jamaican judges have been shown to be less likely to be involved in corruption than any other government or private entity in our island.

They are actually living proof that we can assemble a group of men and women from among us who are beyond reproach.

It is therefore insanity that we are reducing them to reading a sentence from a document rather than allowing them to use their discretion.

If this discretion is given back to them, we would solve all the other problems that we are experiencing with this Firearms Act.

The treatment of toy guns as real guns, without any specific distinction explaining it, treats every piece of plastic rubbish that children can buy in a pharmacy as an actual gun.

This, despite the fact that it looks nothing whatsoever like a real gun.

Needless to say, I would like to see this changed.

However, if the judge has the discretion that he or she should have, then they can apply it in obvious situations where it is clear that no one could confuse a toy gun with a real gun.

Then there are licensed firearm holders.

This group goes through a verification process that would make the Central Intelligence Agency blush.

This group should not fall under the same Act.

There should be a separate Act that governs licensed firearm holders and licensed firearms.

It is insanity in a sport that you will fire thousands of rounds of ammunition per year, and if you are caught with a few extra, by accident, that you can go to jail for 15 years.

Accidents should not result in an innocent person being treated like a killer.

This section of the Act, just like the toy gun sections, needs to change, or, as I have said previously, if you allow the judges to exercise discretion, then they can mitigate the issue.

What we must not touch is the long sentences.

We cannot go back to the revolving door of gun offenders, killing between their various convictions for gun offences.

The creators of the new Firearms Act were operating with an aim to end the killing cycle; they have achieved being a link in a chain that has saved thousands of lives.

We cannot back off at this point.

I am not asking for the Firearms Act to be repealed.

I am asking for amendments, amendments specific to giving judges discretion, because I think they earned it and I know they are capable of using it in a responsible manner.

Each case has its own story, its own dynamic.

Every life is important; every life has the right to be subject to human discretion prior to it being destroyed.

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