By Dr Victor Look Loy

Quite clearly, in order to protect your home and family in Cayman in 2009, one would be better prepared if one is competent in the use of a firearm since the intruders will either be armed with a firearm or some other weapon such as a knife or cutlass. Protecting one’s life and one’s family is a human right as is your right to have protection from your police force without reservation.

The police administration has made known their policy with respect to crimes in which a firearm may be used. They will not, I repeat “NOT” come to your aid nor will the ambulance come to your aid unless the “Gun Squad” has determined that it is safe for other police to mill around the place. That leaves ordinary citizens defenceless in their homes. It is illegal to have a baseball bat or a knife or a cutlass or pepper spray anywhere on your person or in your car for protection.

I stress “ordinary citizens” because citizens who administer justice have firearms and personal bodyguards, as they should. Whether the police should be allowed to carry firearms in my view is a very easily answered in the next sentence. I feel safer walking the streets of Havana at 1 am in the morning than I feel in my office at 1 pm, despite my baseball bat. Who knows how many females and perfectly harmless citizens have turned themselves into felons by disobeying these laws. Perhaps we need to consider how many women have been raped or murdered because it is illegal to defend yourself against stronger, more powerful assailants.

Security is the primary responsibility of a government; not to provide jobs or build schools or build a nice airport. The primary responsibility of a government is to ensure that its citizens are safe from harm whether that harm is from outside the country or from each other.

In Cayman, that responsibility falls squarely on the shoulders of the Governor and his Chief of Police. With that in mind it is quite obvious that the policies in place are inadequate and sorely in need of revision. I absolve the government because they are not really a government; they are expedient caretakers, elected officials who are allowed to function in a limited way by the Governor.

The Governor, together with the Chief of Police, are the ones who are in charge of security and if they were elected officials I would propose a recall vote as soon as possible. I fault them because, despite the constant escalation in violent crime of all sorts, in my opinion there has not been an effective response.

The laws that prevent people from protecting themselves continue on the books; everyone is treated as if they were the criminal and, in fact, even the thought of having a defensive weapon seems to indicate malevolent intention to the powers that be. That attitude and mindset is regressive, misguided, inaccurate, paternalistic, and impractical in this present society.

The United States is perceived as a “gun” society with a “gun” culture and the news is riddled with “gun” crimes. There are about 380 million people in the USA and research has shown that a licensed gun is used for defence of life and property 2.4 million times annually, and in less than 1% of those times a shot is actually fired. In other words in many cases the mere presence of a weapon deters the criminals. On the other hand, children occasionally get carelessly-kept guns and kill other people and in fact there are more suicides with firearms than elsewhere, etc., so there are two sides to a story. In my opinion, gun ownership is primarily a hobby and a sport; not a precaution. It should be recognised that ownership must be accompanied by understanding maturity and vigilance.

In Cayman, in order to qualify for consideration for a firearms licence, one just has to be of sound mind, be of age and not have a criminal record. In reality, there are conditions unofficially put on the granting of a legal firearms licence by people who have no business creating rules for anyone resident in this country.

For instance, if you are not a member of the local “Gun Club” or “The Cayman Islands Sports Shooting Association” as they are otherwise known, or a farmer, it is very unlikely that the Police Commissioner will grant you a licence. The “Sports Shooting Association” is not mentioned in the law as far as I can ascertain, neither is being a farmer.

The “Sports Shooting Association” in my opinion, formed over a two-year association with that body, is not a credibly administered body that even unofficially could be remotely considered as qualified to pass judgment on the suitability of anyone to own a licensed firearm. The Sports Shooting Association membership is an excuse used by the police who, despite the existence of a “Firearm Licensing Committee”, relieve themselves of the responsibility of carefully and impartially assessing each and every application and coming to a decision that is reasonable, fair and arrived at within the guidelines of the Law.

Indeed, if one gets an official reply to one’s application it would be exceptional. This is how we run our police department; we dodge difficult matters and hide from the citizens who dare to make an application for a legal firearm in the hope that they would go away. We put that responsibility instead on a tribal group of young men with bizarre administrative skills who have no one to answer to and lots of issues to deal with.

There are no reasons to believe that responsible gun ownership should be avoided or discouraged in Cayman, especially when there is no evidence that legal firearms are used to any measurable extent in the commission of crimes; indeed it is my understanding that quite a few of the guns that have been stolen from legal gun owners have been stolen from people who belong to the “Sports Shooting Association”.

The Cadet Corps is a prime example in which the tunnel vision of the people in charge can take a perfectly credible organisation and a fine program that has been a success all over the world and narrow down its activities to one in which “boys are taught how to shoot”; as if that in itself is a bad thing. The rifle is the reason that we are not speaking German today. I am proud to be a responsible gun owner even though on this little rock the enjoyment of the sport is severely restricted by people of questionable motive. As a boy I learnt responsible gun handling from my father who did a bit of hunting with his shotgun. Only once did he have to show it without using it to protect his family.

One should consider the fact that so far the criminals are not attacking the police, but given time, that situation is sure to change. To those of you who feel that your neighbour’s licensed firearm is a threat to you; the next time someone is in your house at 3:00 am, call 911, don’t scream for “help”. I hope that the “Gun Squad” is not scattered all over the island or, God forbid, on holiday in Miami.