Ban toy guns, squibs, and dangerous knives

Dear Editor,

I have travelled this entire nation and I note with interest from Essequibo to Berbice we have more sellers than buyers. What’s interesting is that these people can go to the extreme to sell anything to get money, they don’t care what they sell; and it seems the police put a blind eye to what these people are selling. With the current increase in crime, I believe lots of things selling on the paves and market and in our stores should be banned.

For example, I see lots of DVD sellers expose pornographic DVDs openly for sale and school children even buying it from them. They sell masks or false faces that criminals wear to rob people. Most of the toy guns look just like real guns and I know of many instances of people who were robbed by toy guns and the bandits will light a squib to scare people then rob them. If a toy gun seller is smart and has contacts he/she can even sell real guns among his/her selected customers and no one will know because the toy and real guns look the same.

The squibs and bombs these people sell that’s used on Diwali nights and Old Year’s night are very dangerous. I read of a woman whose hands were severely damaged by these bombs. People pelt them on top of people’s houses that caused houses to be burnt down; they pelt it on cars to blow them up and on people to blind and disable them yet these bombs and squibs are sold openly and the police do nothing about it.

Thieves used these bombs to scare people then rob them at nights; people feel its gun bullets but it’s the bombs. How can we know when it’s gun or bombs? How can we know if the bandits have a real gun or toy gun when all look just the same. At markets and many arcades they play very lewd-loud music and at markets and stores that is another distraction that help criminal elements to rob people so no one can hear when they are robbed.

Now I come to these dangerous knives: Just a few days ago I saw a man walking and selling knives strapped to his body in a transparent bag with pockets at the bus park. These are the Rambo knives, the switch blade knives, and a barrage of dangerous knives and ninja kinds of implements. This man is a moving store selling to anyone. I also saw those same weapons selling on the pave all over. I think many years ago one could have been locked up for carrying a dangerous weapon. I still believe that law exists but it seems as if all our laws are flouted daily.

Editor, I am calling on the Minister of Public Security and the Commissioner of Police to ban the use of squibs, toy guns, masks, dangerous knives and all sorts of dangerous artillery that sells openly, including pornographic DVDs. It’s very sad when I look at our country. I see people trying to get rich quick by selling all kinds of evil things and many unlicensed people selling all kinds of poison at the markets. With the rise of crime and suicide our Administration should implement laws to ban all these things.

I have seen even sex toys, hand cuffs, and sado-masochistic sex apparatus selling openly at markets and the pave. What have we really become as a nation?

I am also hoping that the police will remove all roadside loud music on Christmas Eve and Old Year’s night. Loud music has become an incessant nuisance and menace to our society. May God help us!

Yours truly,

Rev Gideon Cecil