Former top cop against amnesty

Mon, August 23, 2010 - 8:48 PM

OCHO RIOS, Jamaica – Former police commissioner turned politician, Lucius Thomas, believes that a gun amnesty, wherein thugs are asked to turn in their illegal weapons without the likelihood of facing criminal charges, is not the way to go at this time.
Thomas said that there were too many guns on the streets, adding that the illegal weapons were in the wrong hands. He believes that a gun amnesty would only bring in a few of the weapons, but would not get to the source or major people behind the guns.
“A gun amnesty will take off some guns, but it will not take off all the guns. That’s not the way to go at this time; there are too many guns out there. The guns are in the wrong hands, and the hands that are not going to turn them in,” Thomas said.
Thomas was responding to a recent article in the Sunday Observer which quoted national security minister, Senator Dwight Nelson, as saying that government was examining such a move.
The former top cop was addressing PNP supporters at a recent constituency meeting in Ocho Rios.
He said that the gun amnesty, by itself, could not remove the deadly weapons and curb crime.
He later told the Observer that the island’s borders and ports had been open for many years and that guns continued to come in freely through various means, for the last 20 years.
“What after the amnesty?,” he asked. “We have had the state of emergency and we still have not found most of the guns on the street. A lot of guns are left out there,” Thomas said, adding that the illegal guns were sometimes not controlled by the persons who were caught with them. (Jamaica Observer)