Yesterday I made the point that our national crime problem is a multi-layered one with many underlying issues to be addressed.

But from a practical standpoint, we will not come close to significantly cutting the murder rate until there’s a major reduction in the number of guns coming into the country.
Without that efficient instrument of death, the job of the killers would not be as easy.

Trace the jump in killings from the mid 1970s onward. It started with the arrival of large numbers of guns to fight the ideological war of the era and continued with the transnational drugs trade, driven by the voracious appetite of Americans.

No Jamaican government since then has forcefully addressed the problem in our bilateral relations with the main supplier of guns – the United States. These guns pour in either directly from the US or through third countries from that same original source.

No amount of aid or technical assistance in various fields from the US will ultimately solve our problem of under-development until that country moves decisively to stem the flow of its destructive weapons into our country.

The US domestic position on gun rights constitutes an existential threat to the Jamaican society, because unfettered domestic access to guns in that country feeds the illicit trade in those very guns across international borders.

The manufacture and sale of arms and ammunition is a major industry in the US. There are more than 400 million guns held in private hands there already, so in order for the industry to continue growing, it has to find outlets – legally and illegally – for more sales.

American politicians - especially those on the Right - have been in the grips of the major "gun rights" lobby - the NRA - for decades, to the detriment of their own people, including young children.

A decade ago, American children were estimated to be 16 times more likely than children in other industrialised countries to be murdered with a gun, 11 times more likely to commit suicide with a gun, & 9 times more likely to die from firearms accidents.

So, they have a culture of death, tied in with their capture by the gun lobby. It's a kind of national derangement that defies any kind of intervention, up to this point.

We should not accept that as our fate here in Jamaica however as we are supposed to be an independent nation with our own values.

Jamaica needs to stand up and speak out loudly and clearly to the US and the world about this matter, even as it must do all in its power to improve its own border security.

Until then, issuing statements of shock and outrage after each heinous murder, or piously preaching the beatitudes to those who are long past listening to them, will be mere whistling in the wind.