The Movement for Social Justice (MSJ) has called on the Trinidad and Tobago government to re-consider its position regarding legislation allowing for law-abiding citizens to have access to legal firearms in defense of themselves and their families.
MSJ leader, David Abdulah, told a virtual news conference on Sunday that while the new government of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar had been given a mandate in the April 28 general election, not every voter had cast a ballot in support of the proposed legislation.
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“She (Persad-Bissessar) said the people voted for this, and she has a mandate. Of course, yes, the United National Congress (UNC) and its coalition of interests party won 26 seats, however, the vote count that they got was just about 30 per cent of the total electorate – about 350,000 out of over 1,000,000 registered electors – so about 30 per cent.
“So it means while the UNC and its coalition of interests got the majority of the votes of people who cast their vote, remember the vote count was low. The turnout was only 54 per cent. So it means the majority of the population did not come out in a positive affirmative way to vote for the government. And so going forward, the government needs to listen carefully to people,” Abdulah told reporters.
Last Thursday, Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar defended the decision of her new administration to push ahead with the legislation telling reporters that a committee will create the legislation looking at models worldwide, including from nearby Florida and that her administration would not be seeking to push the legislation on all law-abiding citizens, because as in a democracy, everyone is entitled to their position.
But she said “if criminals invade your homes, do not back down, show absolutely no mercy, and attack them with full force within the law of Trinidad and Tobago. I am fully committed to making sure the law is put in place.
“This is still a democracy and as long as I am here, it will remain a democracy,” Persad- Bissessar said, adding persons are free to voice their opinions on the matter.
“Today I am voicing mine. Many victims of home invasion have written to me about their experiences. Most victims wanted to defend their families but did not have the equal means to do it,” she said, insisting that in the first place, no one should be invading people’s homes.”
Abudulah told reporters that he believes that when the bill goes before Parliament, there needs to be sufficient time for public comment to ensure the legislation gets it right, as it has the potential to change society’s culture of violence.
“We have already the culture of violence by the criminal element and, therefore, we have to address how do we change that culture of violence that has developed and is being used by the criminal element – how do we change that or do we want to simply reinforce a culture of violence as there exists in the United States,” Abdulah said.
He also disagreed with the government’s plan to base the legislation on existing Florida laws.
“That is not a state that is progressive in many respects, and I will simply leave that there. That state has enacted legislation that is really quite backward. We just put a caution there,” he said. CMC
