Every day we must come to terms with people being killed in Jamaica.

On any given day the news reports double, triple, or quadruple murders at a location. If it is not the killing we hear about, then it is our social media feeds that highlight a “broad daylight” shoot-out that’s taking place in real time.

Worse, we must all accept that Jamaica is a contract-killing den, where a person may go missing, be gunned down or brutally stabbed to death by someone or a group contracted to do so. The person who did the contracting may be someone very close to the individual.

In the court trial surrounding Everton “Beachy Stout” McDonald and the murder of his wife Tonia McDonald, who was found with her throat slashed in a burnt vehicle, the man charged with killing her, Denvalyn “Bubbla” Minott, alleged that her husband contracted and promised him $3 million for the job, but then he subcontracted the work to Oscar Barnes. Minott testified last week that he was never paid the money.

Reading his testimony in the media gave me chills. Especially when Minott said he tried four times to kill her on various occasions until he was successful. I can’t wrap my head around it, particularly when he states in court that, “I am not a criminal, I just commit crimes.”

Just in the same way I can’t wrap my head around the fact that a young architect is shot and killed in Kingston and we are all comfortable saying, “That was clearly a hit,” not grasping that we are giving that response too often now.

It feels like we are no longer safe anywhere in our country. If you say or do something to another person that he or she may not like, instead of confronting you about it, the trend seems to be that the offended individual would prefer to get rid of you. Non-violent conflict resolution no longer exists in our country. There was a time when you could talk over things, forgive people, and move on. Now, our children are beating each other unconscious for stepping on shoes.

Even the gunman’s ethics, as Buju Banton says, have changed: “Step, no time to linger, man haffi move through quick; no shells left behind, you better move well legit; solid composure, youth, your head can’t sick; woman and pickney still off-limit…”

Today, even the baby on the breast is not safe, once the deposit is paid.

Approximately 32 people had their lives taken last week in Jamaica. It is not surprising that we have arrived here. I can remember one weekend when 12 people were killed.

Jamaica has the second-highest murder rate in the world — 52 per 100,000 people. The international benchmark is 30 murders per 100,000 to establish the state of a civil war.

When are we going to wake up? Or are we going to build more gates and grills around ourselves? Will we continue to feel afraid when we see a man on a motorcycle drive up beside us in traffic or have our adrenaline on steroids when we arrive home late at night? Will we continue to be worried when we leave the bank, wondering if someone is trailing us to kill us for our money? Or if you layoff a staff member, will they pay someone to kill you?

Recently, everyone I spoke with told me they live in fear because they don’t know if they or a family member will be the next statistic.

Have we launched any research into the criminal minds of those who we have incarcerated or even the mind of a killer.

I recalled the late psychiatrist, Professor Fredrick Hickling, publicly declaring, in February 2011, that over 41.4 per cent or two-fifths of the Jamaican population have a personality disorder ranging from mild to severe, and consequently, “treatment cannot be explored until the country accepts that something is wrong”.

Hickling and clinical psychologist Vanessa Paisley concluded that this “high risk of behavioural dysfunction in the Jamaican population has significant implications in light of the country’s high rate of crime and violence. The findings highlight the need for effective and targeted prevention and intervention measures”. (West Indies Medical Journal, 2013)

Signs of sociopathic, psychopathic, masochistic, and even misogynistic behaviour are exhibited at an early age. Why are we missing the signs? The carefully curated narrative we’ve built for ourselves to identify people who need counselling is outdated. We need urgent readjustment with modern scientific approaches to help our children struggling with behavioural disorders so that they don’t grow up to strangle people and go to work thinking that’s normal.

Have we done enough to create specialised task forces that are equipped to deal with these types of crimes and possible next steps? Have we done any studies to see where these incidents are most prevalent to know if we need to deploy more social workers, psychologists, and counsellors to aid in sensitisation and tackling mental health issues?

Are we carrying out enough sensitisation campaigns about conflict resolution or, better yet, how to reduce the many domestic, love triangle, and gender-based stereotypes. “Lawd, if him nah lick you, him nuh love you.” “It’s the norm girl, every now and then my man beat me — but is only when mi misbehave.” “Nuh gyal cyah gi mi bun, or she dead!” Unfortunately, this type of thinking has become normalised.

We can’t expect people barren of morals to take morally driven decisive actions or to make the correct decisions. It’s time to rethink our approach to these issues and bring behaviour medication and mental health assistance to the forefront.

The killing and hurting of our people should not be a political issue; it’s about all of us and how we plan to operate going forward. It’s all hands on deck to end this seeming epidemic. We all watched with our eyes wide shut as they spawned, bred, and grew. “Criminal neva born big.”

Let’s face some truths. It took decades to get here, and it’s time to invest in long-term social solutions. Let’s start with collective response, discipline, and courageous cooperation to end this civil war of murder and mayhem on our island.

Lisa Hanna is Member of Parliament for St Ann South Eastern, People’s National Party spokesperson on foreign affairs and foreign trade, and a former Cabinet member.