The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

After 85 handgun murders so far this year, it is disturbing that Attorney General Ryan Pinder would continue to insist that “sentencing guidelines” for gun possession can be left to the Court of Appeal.

Nobody elected the Court of Appeal to decide how inappropriate it is for people to be walking around with handguns in our country. Rather, we elected an executive team (of which Mr Pinder is a part) to keep us safe.

If that team is serious about addressing the appallingly high firearm murder rate that plagues our otherwise orderly society, then it will spend no time whatsoever discussing the matter of sentencing guidelines with the President of the Court of Appeal, whose institution is at least partly responsible for normalising illegal firearm possession in The Bahamas.

Instead, it will prescribe stiff minimum sentences for firearm possession (like most comparable countries) and leave their lordships no choice but to apply publicly determined penalties to a matter that is our (the Bahamian public’s) business and nobody else’s.

ANDREW ALLEN

Nassau,

August 12, 2022