Monday, November 27, 2006

The Guyanese Solution

The Guyanese-born head of the Brooklyn-based Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy is expressing concern over the seemingly relentless increase in shootings and gun violence in some Caribbean-American communities in New York City.

His comments come just days after the killing of Jamaica, New York groom, Sean Bell, 23, who was fatally gunned down by police outside a strip club in the borough of Queens early Saturday morning...

"We believe that the state legislature should review the current laws and enact harsher, mandatory sentences for illegal gun possession, use, trafficking, sale and other related convictions, as part of a new regime of legislative and social policy measures that are urgently needed to pull our communities out of this abyss of drug offences, gang violence, robberies and shootings," Burke stated recently. "We have also got to make the penalties for gun crimes, including unlawful possession and illegal sale, so harsh and arduous, that it will be a permanent deterrent to perpetrators of this type of crime. This would be an effective expression of society's intolerance of this unacceptable and deviant conduct."
So the answer to police gunning down unarmed citizens is further citizen disarmament?

Hmmm, sounds plausible!

And it pretty much mirrors what they're doing in Guyana!
Due to increased gun-related crimes caused by the inflows of illegal weapons, my Administration will:
- introduce tougher penalties for those convicted of illegal possession and use of firearms
- improve intelligence in this area
- expand the Guyana Revenue Authority’s ability to detect smuggled weapons at our sea ports and airports
- increase our military presence in the border areas for better interdiction
- increase international co-operation to combat trafficking in firearms

So how has this worked? Let's consult the State Department, and see:
Serious crime, including murder, home invasion, kidnapping, and carjacking continues to be a major problem. The murder rate in Guyana is three times higher than the murder rate in the United States.
Yep, the Guyanese Solution sounds like another welcome foreign import.

4 comments:

me said...

what good's another harsh (aka cruel and unusual?) gun law that won't be enforced?

sigh


I still stand that it's time to cut and run from the war on drugs, the cost is too much to endure, loss of freedom, feds overstepping their bounds, militarized police, drug gangs, the list goes on. Reminds me of what happened with prohibition, which gave us the atfu.

E. David Quammen said...

"Yep, the Guyanese Solution sounds like another welcome foreign import."

Sounds more like a Brady export, from the U.S. to Guyana, to me.

Anonymous said...

Actually it sounds like yet another attempt to return the world to a feudal era. Most weapons restricted to the aristocratic 'leaders' and their warrior caste enforcers. Japan is the most extreme example of it I can recall. In the past it was easy due to the amount of training necessary to use them effectively. The gun changed all of that.

I always thought that we were against aristocrats in America...

Stan said...

I don't understand how anyone can take a story of LEOs gunning down a celebrating bridegroom and use it to promote further limitation of freedom.