Letters & Opinion

Has Statistics Lost Its Value?

ACCORDING to statistics, apparently the United States has 360 million guns, which translates into one gun per person, and despite pleas in particular from the Obama administration to curtail and reduce the access of gun ownership, the lobbyists and the rifle association have consistently won their battles bringing about no real change despite the ongoing tragedies.

Right here in St. Lucia, we have all witnessed a spike in homicides, mainly from the use of firearms, which has transmitted major concerns from the public at large. We wonder how many guns are floating around the entire island as we speak, and if the authorities are not able to provide the correct answer, could some scientific calculation provide that figure based on the homicides thus far for 2017?

This information, in our view, is important as word on the ground reveals that 60% of all the drugs and guns entering the state land between the Dennery and Micoud areas. An informant recently indicated that during the JounenKweyol activities, a young man exhibited the contents of 45 revolvers in a single bag.

There appears to be a brisk trade of drugs entering the aforementioned areas from both St. Vincent and Venezuela, which are later transported to Martinique and compensated for with guns. True or false, one can hardly deny that the major part of the homicides are drug-related while on the other hand the fallout of the IMPACS repercussions have certainly stimulated the drug trade based on the absence of funding. It is indeed a vicious circle which needs to be addressed as the longer the transactions continue, the more difficult it will be to curb.

Becoming comfortable in any environment is both good and bad, but in this case, it is the latter and that is simply unacceptable.

Despite the views of the Republican Party in the U.S. that gun control is not an issue, the fact that thousands of mentally-deranged people remain on the prowl, it is difficult for organisations to remain abreast with the number of those individuals, including the last Texas episode being a perfect example of a supposedly deranged and known element of danger still able to furnish himself with a number of guns. How many more such incidents can the U.S. face before better sense prevails when justice will take precedence over reality?

Has statistics lost its value or are we now prone to side-line reality vis-a-vis a private organisation backed by projects willing to dominate a landscape under duress when eventually common sense will prevail.

Michael Chastanet

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