Op­po­si­tion leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar made a promise to sup­port­ers in Ch­agua­nas Mon­day night that if she is re­turned as prime min­is­ter, she will seek to open up the use of pri­vate firearms among cit­i­zens who feel hand­i­capped by the cur­rent crime sit­u­a­tion.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar's per­spec­tive that law-abid­ing cit­i­zens ought to be bet­ter poised to de­fend them­selves has res­onat­ed favourably in quar­ters be­yond the UNC camp amid a sick­en­ing trend of home in­va­sions and an over­all bad crime sit­u­a­tion.

On the oth­er end, the gov­ern­ment, through Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley, has re­peat­ed­ly ar­gued that such a move pos­es sig­nif­i­cant dan­gers and can give way to in­dis­crim­i­nate be­hav­iours.

The gov­ern­ment's po­si­tion weighs heav­i­ly to­ward law en­force­ment en­hanc­ing their lev­els of cit­i­zen pro­tec­tion as op­posed to arm­ing more cit­i­zens to be able to do so them­selves.

It is a de­bate with sound ar­gu­ments on both sides, al­though the fail­ures of the po­lice to keep cit­i­zens safe against home in­vaders have giv­en rise to greater sup­port for more li­cenced firearms.

Mrs Per­sad-Bisses­sar may not have done her ar­gu­ment much good, how­ev­er, with the un­qual­i­fied state­ment that fol­lowed her promise dur­ing her ad­dress in Ch­agua­nas.

She told sup­port­ers, "When the crim­i­nals in­vade your home you can draw your li­cence firearm and light them up. Emp­ty the whole clip," that is to say, keep shoot­ing un­til the car­tridge is emp­ty.

This is where cau­tion is need­ed. State­ments like these are ex­act­ly why the gov­ern­ment is ar­gu­ing against it.

As pop­u­lar as her state­ment might have been to sup­port­ers, there re­main lim­its un­der the law con­cern­ing counter-force and the bal­ance of proof when ac­tion is tak­en in re­sponse to threats.

There may be times when a li­cenced firearm hold­er must 'emp­ty an en­tire clip' in de­fence of them­selves and their fam­i­ly, in the face of heart­less crim­i­nals in their pri­vate spaces.

But to sug­gest this as a de­fault re­ac­tion is ex­act­ly what can lead to the type of in­dis­crim­i­nate be­hav­iour that tilts the scale to the oth­er end.

Sup­port for more li­cence firearms must be matched with bet­ter ed­u­ca­tion on the lim­its un­der the law as it re­lates to the lev­els of re­ac­tion per­mit­ted when faced with threats.

To sug­gest that le­gal firearm hold­ers should 'emp­ty the whole clip' risks putting those same fore­arm hold­ers in po­si­tions that may not with­stand the scruti­ny of a court of law.

For this rea­son, while we en­cour­age both sides to con­tin­ue to wide­ly air their views on the pros and cons of more pri­vate gun own­er­ship, our mes­sage must be mea­sured by what is law­ful, re­gard­less of how strong­ly we feel about the cur­rent crime sit­u­a­tion.