The umbrella body representing the labour movement has called on Government to declare gun violence in Barbados a “national public health epidemic” and urgently conduct research to find a remedy to this problem.
In a strongly worded statement on Monday, General Secretary of the Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations, (CTUSAB) Dennis de Peiza argued that the recent spike in shootings presents a concern to public safety and insisted that the Mia Mottley administration must take concrete steps to address the worrying problem.
“It is proposed that there is the labelling of violence caused by the use of guns as a national public health epidemic, and that the issue is not confined as one that is the responsibility of law enforcement and the criminal justice system,” he said.
The CTUSAB executive further called on Government to fund research to find solutions to the gun crisis.
“The funding of appropriate research as part of the national interest is urgently required, given that evidence-based research grounded in reliable science is a proven pathway for addressing the gun violence crisis. Some experts share the opinion that a lack of research results in a scarcity of evidence regarding prevention of homicide and violent crime,” de Peiza said.
He lamented that the surge in gun crime has induced fear and agony, and said the public can take no comfort in the alarming statistics of gun violence disclosed by Attorney General Dale Marshall at his July 10 press conference.
Marshall had disclosed that there were 23 gun-related murders in 2017, 18 in 2018, 30 in 2019, 26 in 2020, and 17 in 2021.
For the period January to July 7, 2022, 17 murders have been recorded, 12 of them with the use of firearms. During the period 2017 to 2022, police recovered 465 firearms.
“It is imperative that government establishes appropriate measures to curb the criminal importation of firearms. Evidence elsewhere suggests that reducing access to illegal guns through structured programmes have demonstrated that success can be achieved in reducing homicide and violent crime rates,” de Peiza said.
“The strict enforcement and/or tightening of current gun laws is strongly recommended as a means towards curbing the importation of guns into the island and the ready access persons have to them.”
At his press conference last week, the Attorney General insisted that while the country was experiencing a surge in gun-related crime, the Barbados Police Service was on top of the situation.
“I have referred to this increase in firearm crime as a spike. I use this term deliberately because that is exactly what it is – a sharp increase in numbers over a short period of time. This is not an indication that Barbados had descended into a state of chaos or outright lawlessness,” Marshall said at the time.
