Dear Editor,
When the Government announced that they wanted to reduce the amount of legal weapons held by citizens, they also said that they wanted weapons in the hands of the army and Police.
No less a person than President Granger is reported to have made that statement.
The question we are forced to ask is how safe will the law abiding and mostly peaceful people of this country be with legal weapons only in the hands of these two bodies?
It is apposite to remember that the 31 AK 47s that went missing from the army found their way to the criminals. Many are still out there as illegal weapons.
It is also apt to note that the Chief-of-Staff of the army, at the time those weapons went missing, is now an advisor to the President.
It is necessary to recall also that during the Commission of Inquiry into the brutal assassination of Walter Rodney, it was disclosed that hundreds of weapons of all types were taken from the army for the House of Israel, the PNC thugs and other operatives.
Many of those same weapons were found on the criminals who were apprehended or eliminated by the Police.
When the five murderers escaped from the Camp Street Prison in 2002, they were quickly armed with all types of weapons, including AK 47s.
Where did they acquire these weapons from?
In his book, ‘The Morning After’, elder Eusi Kwayana provided a lot of information about the relationship between the bandits and the PNC leaders. His book disclosed how the bandits were armed by these leaders.
We also know that top PNC leaders came out in solidarity with criminals, attending their funerals, using their facilities at those funerals and even hailing them as heroes by draping their coffins with the country’s national flag, a blatant desecration of our national symbol.
Therefore, the Police and army alone having possession of legal weapons does not translate into a safer society.
The Government should not take away legally held weapons from the population.
Sincerely,
Donald Ramotar
Former President of
Guyana
