Twenty out of the 31 homicides recorded in St. Vincent and the Grenadines so far for this year are gun related.

This was disclosed by Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) in Charge of Crime Frankie Joseph, speaking today on WEFM’s Morning Program.

According to ACP Joseph, a spike in gun related crimes in this country began about three to four years ago, and he pointed to the year 2014, when 38 murders were recorded of which 27 were firearm related.

“If we could go back to 2014 where we had 38 murders and out of those 38 murders approximately 27 were as a result of firearms. Last year we had our record number of murders which was over 40 and if you can see the pattern it has been on the increase. This year so far we have 31 murders and 20 out of those 31 murders are as a result of the use of firearms,” ACP Joseph said.

ACP Joseph said this country does not manufacture guns, however many enter here via our porous borders, while some arrive in barrels at the Ports.

“The Coast Guard cannot cover the whole border of St. Vincent and the Grenadines it is beyond them. We do not manufacture firearms. We have persons who are involved in the drug trade and we cultivate a lot of marijuana here and we know that…its public knowledge. And in some of these cases where these guys cultivate their marijuana it is very difficult to get there and what has been happening is that these persons who are in the drug trade they would barter drugs for firearms and because of the porous border you would have these firearms coming through.”

“Some of these firearms are coming through our ports in terms of barrels, because we in the past got information that firearms came through in barrels, they disguised them, so therefore they could not have been detected. We execute warrants and we recovered those firearms,” he said.

ACP Joseph said the Police are continuing and increasing their stop and search and patrols in various communities, particularly those deemed as hot spots.

This fight against gun violence in St. Vincent and the Grenadines cannot be tackled by the Police or government alone, ACP Joseph said.

He made a call for citizens to play an active part in addressing this situation, particularly those who may be privy to information before criminal acts are carried out, to contact the police.

“This fight in terms of the gun violence cannot be fought by the police alone, and it cannot be fought by the government alone otherwise we cannot put a dent into this issue of gun violence. This fight must be fought by every single Vincentian because there are people out there who have information and not only have information after the fact whenever a shooting and an offence has been committed. There are persons out there who would be privy to information before these things happen,” the senior Police officer said.

ACP Joseph said that particularly in cases where a person may hear of a threat made to kill someone, a report should be made to the police.

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