Church leaders call for harsher sentences for gun offenders

While calling for sweeping changes to Barbados’ gun laws, church leaders have proposed that convicted murderers and those found with illegal firearms be given lengthy prison sentences.

On the heels of Sunday’s triple murder at Thunder Bay that claimed the lives of three young men, members of the National Network of Pastors & Combined Churches have suggested that convicted murderers be given a 40-year prison sentence without parole, while persons found guilty of having illegal firearms should be made to serve at least 15 years in prison.

Speaking during an urgently called press conference at Restoration Ministries International Sanctuary, Gunsite Road, Brittons Hill on Wednesday, the pastors argued that current penalties are no longer acting as a deterrent and needed to be strengthened.

“We need stronger penalties. We cannot just give a slap on the wrist, we can’t do that any longer,” Apostle David Durant stressed.

Central to that call was a proposal to replace the death penalty with a fixed, uncompromising sentence: 

“In place of the death penalty I will put 40 years without the possibility of parole. That’s like a life sentence,” Durant said.

“If a young man… is stupid enough to go and do that knowing what the penalty is, that he has 40 years up there, I think it will help to cause him to think twice rather than go and get a 10 year [sentence].

“The homicides we see being committed; people shooting 11 bullets in a man’s body and so forth, 40 years,” he added, while explaining that such acts should be treated differently from “a murder of passion or manslaughter”.

Durant said the same tough stance should also be extended to firearm possession.

“If you are found with an illegal gun, 10–15 years that’s it,” Durant insisted, arguing that immediate custodial penalties would remove repeat offenders from the streets and disrupt cycles of violence.

At the same time, the panel suggested that enforcement gaps and possible systemic failures may be contributing to the problem. 

“Sadly, there are people in this nation, and people in high positions in this nation, because to me, this thing is a well-organised administrative syndicate.

“It has to be well-organised from the grassroots to an unspecified level… They have to know,” Durant said.

“If guns are found in a container, who brought in the container in the island? Containers come to no name? Scanners not working at convenient times… we got to get real.”

While also endorsing tougher penalties, Apostle Timothy McClean acknowledged that punishment alone would not solve the crisis. 

He pointed out that such measures only address crime after it has already occurred.

“We are only talking about a measure that occurs after a crime has occurred. We need to work before the crime has occurred.

“What is causing men to commit these levels of crimes, to find gangs to be attractive? We need to get to that issue and we need to arrest that issue,” McClean maintained.

“It is not just him getting the 40 years… but now we have families that have been torn apart, children that don’t have parents… so we have a lot of repairs now still to be done.”

The press conference also served to promote a National Evening of Prayer and Worship, scheduled for Thursday at Golden Square Freedom Park, beginning at 6:30 p.m.

Organisers said the event is intended to address what they described as a growing “fear in our nation” and a “numbing of our emotions”, while mobilising citizens spiritually and socially.

“We’re not going there just to have another service, but we really want God to do something… we want a visitation to this island,” Durant said, outlining plans for worship and targeted prayers for families, communities, leaders and those affected by crime.

“We’ll be praying for the crime and the violence and the murders that are really bringing a lot of fear… and also… many families… that are grieving.”

The initiative forms part of a wider push, with April declared a Month of Prayer and churches encouraged to open daily, while encouraging citizens to pray at 6 a.m., 12 p.m. and 6 p.m.

 

(LE)