BARBADOS, Sept 3, 2022 — Attorney General Dale Marshall has called on Barbadians to adopt a “zero tolerance” for guns and anyone dealing with these illegal firearms.
Mr. Marshall urged citizens to take this tough stance as he addressed a press conference on Friday, September 3, where he said the four shooting deaths the island recorded in three days took the number of homicides for the year to 28.
Speaking directly to the public, the Attorney General said: “If your son or daughter, your boyfriend or girlfriend is involved in that way of life, bringing guns in the house, hiding them under the mattress, tell them not with you…. If you, your partner, your mother, your father, your brother, your sister, whoever it is, is involved in that way of life, zero tolerance means that we have a vested interest in telling them to … get out of that way of life….
“I understand this is a difficult conversation; it will be hard for some because some of the members of the public may rely on these individuals for support. They may say, well I can’t do this to my child’s father…. But the fact is that if you don’t, you have to accept that you may well become a casualty because you support that particular way of life.”
Mr. Marshall expressed the view that a whole of country approach must be adopted to deal with the crime situation, as was done earlier to successfully fight the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, he stated
“The statistics in relation to the other crimes are down. So, if we’ve been able to quell the other kinds of criminal activity using particular interventions and methods, there’s no reason why we should not be able to succeed in firearm crimes by using the same approach….
“It will require steady, diligent work on the part of the Police Service, on the part of the Government and equally important, on the part of the people of Barbados,” he stressed. See complete Barbados Government Information Services article at https://gisbarbados.gov.bb/blog/barbadians-urged-to-adopt-zero-tolerance-for-guns/
CAPTION: Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Dale Marshall. (FP).
