Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar has continued to maintain her position on stand your ground legislation, amid condemnation over her call for those with legal firearms to 'empty their clips' on intruders.
Her comments have been rejected by political commentators, security experts and others who have warned that her words might infuse a belief that such actions are justified, even when one is not in mortal danger.
Mrs Persad-Bissessar, however, will do her supporters a wealth of good by using some of her time on the platforms to explain what currently exists as law in T&T against what she is calling for.
In fact, Mrs Persad-Bissessar may very well find that there is already sufficient legislation to support the exact thing that she is demanding, and that stand your ground legislation is not necessary for home occupants to take defensive action up to the level of deadly force.
As it currently stands, T&T's self-defence laws already allow those who feel threatened in their homes to act in a manner that will protect their life and that of other occupants, as long as the force used can be justified in a court of law.
The law is similar to what is known as the Castle Doctrine used in other jurisdictions, only differing in that under the Castle Doctrine law, occupants are duty-bound to retreat first before taking defensive action.
Stand your ground legislation differs from Castle Doctrine legislation on two points.
Firstly, it removes the requirement for the occupants to firstly retreat, and secondly, it is not limited to self-defence in one's home but generally includes all places, for example, a place of work, vehicle, or in public.
Therefore, to posit stand your ground law as something new and absolutely necessary for citizens to defend themselves, negates that it is de facto law here, albeit defined differently.
And while it is true that a person with a licensed firearm stands a better chance of defending himself/herself against armed criminals, legal firearm holders cannot be encouraged to believe that 'emptying a clip' equates to standing one's ground.
There are limits, regardless of what law we choose to follow.
Studies undertaken in several US states after the implementation of stand your ground laws have found an increase in the number of justifiable homicides, while in others it only escalated already tense situations, turning what were minor altercations into shooting incidents, some of the fatal.
It is for these reasons that firearm user licence applicants in T&T must be put through psychological evaluation and extensive background checks to qualify for weapons.
These safeguards are appropriately in place to ensure that those selected are the right people who can use guns responsibly and sift out the ones who may very well seek to answer the call to empty a clip, simply because they were told by a politician to do so.