“Gun violence is a contemporary global human rights issue affecting the lives of individuals around the world. Gun-related violence threatens our most fundamental human right, the right to life… More than 500 people die every day because of violence committed with firearms…Easy access to firearms – whether legal or illegal – is one of the main drivers of gun violence” (Amnesty International (AI).
Although it appears that action to ban assault-style weapons is being taken in Canada, and has been taken in New Zealand, only after numerous mass shootings, I applaud the leaders of these 2 countries for their action in this regard.
On Friday 1 May, 2020, as Amanda Connolly (Global News) said: ” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the federal government is banning a range of assault-style guns with an order that takes effect immediately. He said: ‘These weapons were designed for one purpose and one purpose only: to kill the largest number of people in the shortest amount of time. There is no use and no place for such weapons in Canada. We can stick to thoughts and prayers alone, or we can unite as a country and put an end to this.’…Public Safety Minister Bill Blair described it as a ‘first step’ with others still to come.”
The ban will see a total of 1,500 models and variants of assault-style firearms “banned for use, sale, import or transport in Canada effective immediately and includes a two-year amnesty period for current owners. Eventually, there will also be a buyback program, but those details are still being worked out.” PM Trudeau said: “All buyback programs will need to be made into bills…”
What is heartening is that, “according to a poll from the Angus Reid Institute, released Friday 1 May, 2020, an ‘overwhelming majority’ of Canadians – nearly four out of five people – support the ban.'” Since 1989 there have been at least 8 “notable” mass shootings in Canada, with the latest one being on April 18, 2020 when a gunman went on a 12-hour rampage and murdered 22 persons in Nova Scotia in the worst mass shooting in Canada’s modern history.
It is important to note that the Cabinet order, which comes 12 days after the Nova Scotia shooting, does not forbid owning any of these weapons and their variants. And, as the media reported, the new ban would probably not have stopped the Nova Scotia killer from obtaining his weapons. “He did not have a license to possess or purchase firearms, and police have said they believe the guns were obtained illegally in Canada and the United States” (UK Guardian, Intl. Edition). And if the buyback programme is voluntary and not mandatory, thousands of these weapons may remain in circulation.
In New Zealand, on 15 March 2019, a gunman murdered 51 worshippers inside two mosques – the largest mass shooting in the country’s history. Less than a week after, Prime minister Jacinda Ardern “announced a sweeping, nation-wide ban on assault weapons.” Time Magazine reported her as saying: “‘In short every semiautomatic weapon used in the terror attack on Friday will be banned in this country.’ As part of the new law, which is expected to be in place in a matter of weeks, the prime minister said gun owners would have a ‘reasonable’ amount of time to give up and sell their weapons to the government.”
Time Magazine pointed out: “The speed with which the country enacted change highlights the stark differences with how the U.S. has reacted to its own massacres.” Jen Christensen (CNN), says that: “Between 1966 and 2012, there were 90 mass shootings in the United States.”
And what about us in TT? Read this frightening report in TT Guardian (20 Feb 2019): (http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/criminals-switching-to-military-weapons-senior-cop-6.2.785090.77072ee53d) in which “Assistant Commissioner of Police (Anti-Crime) Jayson Forde told a Parliament Joint Select Committee on National Security that police were seizing an average of 1,000 illegal firearms annually… Criminals are shifting from the use of handguns to commit crimes to more sophisticated military-type rifles…Forde admitted that the rate at which illegal firearms ‘appear on the streets is something to be concerned about.'” The Strategic Services Agency data showed then that there were 8,154 illegal firearms in TT. And there is big money in the illegal firearms trade.
Until we adopt more effective measures to address gun violence in TT, our streets will continue to be drenched in blood. We all have a role to play in ridding our country of this plague.
First Published in the Trinidad and Tobago Guardian Newspapers
