Move over Woodward and Bernstein. Tyrone Reid of the Jamaica [the island, not the armpit of Queens] Sunday Gleaner has uncovered a scandal that will rock the Caribbean paradise to its very foundation. He’s published exclusive information that shows when the island’s gun licensing authority lowered stringent testing requirements, licensed firearm ownership – hold on – went up. [Cue ominous soundtrack] Hold on to your keyboard, it’s about to get scary…
Jamaica’s Firearms Licensing Authority [FLA] previously had some awfully tough written and practical requirements for an islander to qualify for a gun. But the FLA has recently relaxed them. Now they’re more like something you’d see in (more restrictive parts of) the US. And to Reid this presents a clear and present danger.
…A knowledgeable source reveals a slew of changes by the board of the FLA which, the informant claims, has led to…”a total breakdown of the system of issuing firearm licences” in Jamaica since 2008. The informant contends that this “watering down of the standards” has placed the public at risk.
The “total breakdown” consists of a temporary elimination – in some cases – of the written test while it’s revamped. The FLA chairman admitted, “it was difficult. Senior people in the army, the gazetted ranks, and business people (private security) were failing the test.”
The qualifying scores in shooting tests were lowered, too. With a handgun, it’s now 8 out of 10, down from a previously required perfect score. With a shotgun, shooters now have to hit only 4 of 5 steel plates. They used to have to ding all of them.
Reid’s Deep Throat source is – as you’d expect – quite alarmed:
“Imagine a gunman is holding you hostage (and) a licensed firearm holder challenges the gunman, how would you like to know that the licensed (firearm) owner is only skilled at hitting his target eight out of 10 times? What happens to those other two bullets? Let’s hope they don’t kill you instead,” the source argued.
Good thing he’s never seen stats on US law enforcement shooting accuracy.
All this means more licensed firearms in the hands of Jamaicans. Before the relaxed requirements, the FLA issued 76 gun permits in 2007. The number was up to 2,386 in 2010.
More bad news for gun grabbers in paradise: the FLA’s also eliminated the medical exam and tax compliance requirements for a license. It’s a dark day in paradise when citizens can actually protect themselves. But don’t worry. Reid’s speaking truth to power. He won’t rest until this wrong is righted.
Just drop some Suarez RMR Glocks into Jamaica. They’ll be ringing steel like crazy in no time.
Guns and ganja….sounds like a good mix. No, really. Let’s send em’ thousands of Glocks and watch with popcorn in hand 🙂
You have obviously never watched Robin Williams Live on Broadway, have you? 😛
““Imagine a gunman is holding you hostage (and) a licensed firearm holder challenges the gunman …”
Does this idiot even read what he writes. So its OK to be held hostage by an unlicensed gunman but its bad to have the perp confronted by a licensed firearms holder. This must be Obamaville, black is white, up is down, right is left, night is day …
… and stupid is as stupid does.
Maybe Farago should write a discussion article on confronting hostage takers.
(And would you really DIRECTLY confront a hostage taker?)
Certainly… Well I can imagine my Grandmother doing it. “Young Man! Yes, you with the hostage… Does your mother know what you are doing right now? Would you like me to call her and let her know how her son is embarassing her in public?”
“Would you like me to call your father and inform him how his son is dragging the family name through the mud in front of all these people?”
“Don’t make me call your Grandmother.”
Your grandma sounds really nice, Bob H. Mine would have just shot the bastard.
Given the number of gun violence in this beloved Island (Jamaica), the time has come for every law abiding citizen of Jamaica to own their special power pack tool (Gun). I know that there are fears that exist with this concept, but with the technology that exist today, legal gun can be tracked with chips in them and also the bullets can be tracked via chip. these chips need mobile, but bar codes connected to a computer base and connected to the GPS system that every most countries have access to. Hence, abiding citizens of Jamaica should not be denied their rights to protect themselves. Police are few and at times, action needed to be taken until police presence is realized. The governing bodies of Jamaica need to rethink their former ideas and allow make it much easier law abiding citizens to obtain their gun for protective use.
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