fp Turks and Caicos

I would like to address (a recent letter from Jack Grever) from the point of view of someone who has experienced a violent gun crime on Providenciales in recent years. Unfortunately this event and the resulting years of partially successful investigations is the reason my family no longer lives in the Turks and Caicos Islands, our home for the previous 12 years, but we are still extremely attached to the island and are saddened to see that the lessons which should have been learnt from our experience have not yet improved safety of all the friends we left behind.

Firstly I would like to congratulate Mr. Grever in taking the time to put his ideas on paper for publishing. I agree with most of his points and all his intent, it is only through individuals making suggestions that there can be effective public debate that result in new, more effective law making and policing.

I would like to reinforce Mr. Grever’s point no. 5 which encourages ridding the island of firearms altogether via a law which essentially makes all guns illegal except those owned and used by the police force. TCI is a small country and one illegal gun does not equal one shocking incident. The effect of a single handgun in the wrong hands has huge negative effect as it can be used by multiple criminals in multiple gun assisted offences causing far greater harm to society and the impression of safety than the use of a single firearm in a country of far larger population such as the U.K. where four or five crimes go unnoticed.

In TCI, four or five serious crimes is a national issue and an international headline. The British have taken far too long to realize that a gun offence in the TCI should not be treated the same as the same offence in the U.K. due to the destabilizing effect it has on the wellbeing of the country as a whole. Indeed any argument by collectors or gun club members that guns can be owned and stored responsibly is completely unfounded in a country such as TCI where one stolen firearm can do so much to damage societies safety and, potentially, economy.

Persons who want to own guns for (legal) personal purposes are selfishly endangering the wellbeing of the majority of the public. ALL guns found by the police should be automatically illegal and all handlers arrested for an offence against society.

Having said that, I am shocked and saddened by Mr. Grever’s inclusion of point 4 that advocates the use of Tasers on the island. This is, in my opinion, almost worse than arming everyone with handguns where you at least level the playing field between legal owner and criminal. Arming the public with a sub-effective weapon in a country where illegal hand guns may be rife is a license for carnage, where criminals have an excuse to shoot first.

I would suggest that these points need careful consideration before employing such a law:

• Tasers are simply less effective handguns. They are not an effective deterrent against well-armed criminals.
• The worst thing you can do in the event of an armed attack on your home is to reach for any weapon unless you catch the attacker unawares and are a trained marksman, knife thrower, etc. For every incident that ends in a successful defense, think three innocent deaths?
• Persons licensed to have Tasers will become targets for criminals wishing to improve their arsenal.
• Tasers will be stolen on the island — FACT!
• Tasers will enter the criminal underground and will ultimately be used (untrained) against the persons who owned them originally, their friends and family.
• Tasers kill when used incorrectly — FACT! Will part of the licensing law include demonstrating how to teach a criminal how to use a Taser so you don’t feel how it is to die at the hands of your own weapon? I suggest a bullet might be a better way to go?
• Licensed Tasers will get into the hands of children — FACT!

For now all my experiences in achieving justice in TCI will remain between myself, the police and the governor’s office. It appears to me, however, that the biggest issues is a lack of funding and by default a lack of training; indeed, this has repeatedly been the line delivered to us by both governor’s office and police personnel over the last 2½ years. (I have some sympathy for the latter given the antics of the last government and previous governor, all of whom are not on my Christmas card list).

If, therefore, there are a number of people wanting to defend themselves via licensed Taser ownership (yes, I was sent the petition too), can I suggest that instead you start a fund which holds the money you are each prepared to spend on these weapons and training and use it instead to help train and arm the police effectively through the police management personnel that have been brought to TCI by the current governor.

THEN DEMAND PROTECTION AND JUSTICE, NO EXCUSES AND NO MORE WEAPONS OF ANY KIND, LEGAL OR OTHERWISE.

Lastly, heaven forbid you find yourselves in the position my wife and I did, but if you do, please, please, please do not reach for a Taser or any other weapon. You will likely not feel the bullet that hits you.

I wish all in the TCI the very best in their quest for a safer society and look forward to bringing our children to a place as safe and beautiful as TCI was when I first stepped on the island back in 1996.

Rory Stevens

P.S. Understanding the local conditions is the key to good policing so I suggest a further point that I have repeatedly made to the governors office in the past — GET DOGS!

Editor’s note: Tasers are a brand of electroshock stun guns manufactured by Taser International. Jack Grever has an online petition asking the governor to allow importation of Tasers — www.petitiononline.com/TASER/petition.html