A Gun Control Paradise Has a Crime Problem. Guess What Politicians Want to Do Next?

There is no right to keep and bear arms in Jamaica. Gun ownership is highly restricted, and the ability to lawfully carry a firearm for self-defense is basically non-existent for the average resident. While a license to carry exists, applicants are subjected to a "may issue" system where they can be denied for virtually any reason, and must provide authorities with character recommendations, proof of a "valid" reason to carry, and open their homes to police for security and safe inspections. 

There are only about 45,000 legally possessed firearms in Jamaica, and the number of legal gun owners is even smaller. If gun control laws actually made us safer, then Jamaica would be a crime-free paradise. Instead, the country of about 3 million people has historically seen well over 700 murders a year, along with high rates of armed robberies and other violent crimes. Just like in the United States, homicides are dramatically decreasing in Jamaica at the moment, but there were still about 650 murders last year, and a homicide rate around 23 per 100,000 (compared to the U.S. homicide rate of 4.1 per 100,000). 

The country's restrictive gun laws include a mandatory 15-year sentence for anyone caught illegally carrying a gun. A group of attorneys recently staged a silent protest in opposition to that draconian punishment, but the nation's National Security Council is actually proposing an even harsher punishment of a 20-year mandatory minimum. 

There's been some pushback to that idea from the minority party in Jamaica's parliament, but opposition spokeswoman Zuleika Jess has framed the issue as one of judicial flexibility, not the immorality of putting someone behind bars for 20 years simply for possessing a firearm without a government-issued permission slip. 

In a release, she said the Opposition is formally calling for the inclusion of an “exceptional circumstances clause” within the law, which would restore judicial discretion and empower judges to consider mitigating factors and the peculiar circumstances of each individual case.

“Simply moving the goalposts from 15 to 20 years does nothing to solve the deeper operational crisis this legislation has created,” Jess said. “The existing rigid, ‘one-size-fits-all’ framework has completely paralysed plea bargaining in our legal system. When individuals face an unyielding, severe baseline sentence with absolutely no incentive to plead guilty early, they choose to take their chances with a full trial. This total freeze on plea negotiations has caused a backlog in our Courts and delayed justice for victims of violent crime.”

If a 15-year sentence isn't harsh enough to get people to stop illegally carrying guns, then another five years isn't gonna do the trick. And the fact that the court system is paralyzed because of all these gun possession cases that are going to trial is a pretty clear sign that the draconian laws aren't having the deterrent effect lawmakers are hoping for. 

I doubt it'll ever happen, but Jamaica's political leaders need to completely rethink their tactics and strategy here. The problem isn't people possessing guns, it's the criminal misuse of those firearms. Jamaica should make it much easier to possess and carry firearms without breaking the law, which would free up prosecutors to focus their attention on crimes of violence instead of getting bogged down going after possessory offenses. 

American gun control activists love to point to other countries as examples of what the United States should aspire to, but Jamaica rarely makes their list... probably because its experience exposes an uncomfortable truth: making it extraordinarily difficult to legally own a firearm doesn't magically make criminals disappear. In fact, it turns otherwise law-abiding citizens into criminals if they dare to protect themselves with a gun without obtaining government approval beforehand. 

That, of course, is exactly what American gun control advocates want for us. We don't have to look far to see what a disaster that would be, and why we need to fight as hard as we can to defend our right to keep and bear arms. 

Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their extreme gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.

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