Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Dr. Ho­race Chang says leg­is­la­tion deal­ing with firearm of­fences will be re­viewed and strength­ened to tack­le gang­sters who cause may­hem in com­mu­ni­ties.

Chang, speak­ing while on a vis­it to Cher­ry Tree Lane in Claren­don, south of here, where eight peo­ple were mur­dered and nine oth­ers in­jured on Sun­day, said that the killings by men with high-pow­ered guns has shocked the en­tire na­tion, and the gang­sters are be­ing pur­sued.

He said that all the leg­is­la­tion deal­ing with gun crimes must get ur­gent at­ten­tion, point­ing out that “we (Gov­ern­ment) will take every step to pro­tect cit­i­zens, pre­vent reprisals and ap­pre­hend mem­bers of the gangs”.

Chang, who is al­so the Deputy Prime Min­is­ter, said it was an act of ter­ror on the com­mu­ni­ty, and the po­lice are mak­ing every ef­fort to nab the killers, and “we will give them the re­quired sup­port”.

Since the in­ci­dent on Sun­day night, a 96-hour cur­few has been im­posed in sev­er­al com­mu­ni­ties in the parish.

Un­der the new Firearms (Pro­hi­bi­tion, Re­stric­tion and Reg­u­la­tion) Act, 2022, which is now in ef­fect, per­sons who are con­vict­ed for pos­ses­sion, trade in firearms and am­mu­ni­tion can face penal­ties rang­ing from 15 years to life im­pris­on­ment.

The leg­is­la­tion es­tab­lish­es a dual regime, dis­tin­guish­ing be­tween pro­hib­it­ed weapons or un­reg­u­lat­ed firearms and ac­tiv­i­ties con­nect­ed there­to and firearms that are du­ly au­tho­rised or reg­is­tered.

Il­le­gal firearms fea­ture in 85 per cent of mur­ders and vi­o­lent crimes com­mit­ted across the is­land.

On Mon­day, Prime Min­is­ter An­drew Hol­ness said that the au­thor­i­ties will be us­ing Sun­day night’s killings to “deal with the gangs once and for all.

“We can­not al­low this in­ci­dent to be treat­ed mere­ly as an­oth­er crim­i­nal act. It is not mere­ly a crim­i­nal act. Or­gan­ised crime vi­o­lence is an act of ter­ror and we must treat them as crim­i­nal ter­ror­ists,” Hol­ness told re­porters fol­low­ing an emer­gency meet­ing of the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil.

“The se­cu­ri­ty forces have been giv­en the di­rec­tions, Op­er­a­tions are al­ready un­der­way from all lev­els. In­tel­li­gence…from in the field, we are seek­ing the sup­port of our part­ners to get those who are over­seas, who are fa­cil­i­tat­ing, di­rect­ing and fund­ing the crim­i­nal op­er­a­tions here. No stone will be left un­turned.”

Mean­while, the main op­po­si­tion Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Par­ty(PNP0 has ex­pressed” pro­found shock and ut­ter con­dem­na­tion of the hor­rif­ic and sense­less mas­sacre” in Claren­don.

Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Claren­don South West­ern, Lothan Cousins, de­scribed “this vi­cious act as un­con­scionable,” say­ing it has cast a dark shad­ow over the com­mu­ni­ty, leav­ing the rel­a­tives and friends of the de­ceased and in­jured, in tremen­dous sor­row and dis­be­lief.

PNP leader, Mark Gold­ing, said Ja­maica is “sick­ened” by yet an­oth­er de­praved act of vi­o­lence.

‘There have been sev­er­al in­stances of mul­ti­ple killings in Claren­don in re­cent years, with this one be­ing the most egre­gious. I stand ready to co­op­er­ate with the Gov­ern­ment to achieve bi­par­ti­san ac­tion to come to grips with this ut­ter­ly un­ten­able sit­u­a­tion,” Gold­ing said.

KINGSTON, Ja­maica, Aug 13, CMC