- NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 19/Aug 07:08

Giving people licence to kill

THE RISKS involved in giving people licence to kill are graphically illustrated by two recent incidents. On August 15, a 66-year-old pensioner was left in tears after he fired his approved firearm at two would-be robbers who had attacked him with a spanner. Both died. One day later, a prison officer surrendered to authorities after he fired shots at a group of men who had stabbed him in an altercation over a parking spot near a doubles vendor. A bystander, a 65-year-old woman, was killed, and another, a truck driver, injured. Each incident shows the kind of situation that could become more prevalent under a paradigm shaped by stand-your-ground and home invasion legislation. They are canaries in a coalmine. The government’s draft Home Invasion (Self-Defence and Defence of Property) Bill, 2025, does not give homeowners carte blanche authority to fire at will. The proposed legislation, which builds on already-existing legal provisions and principles, sets parameters. For example, the defensive force used must be proportionate and reasonable; grossly disproportionate force is not allowed. Still, the cultural impact of being entitled to stand one’s ground is significant. The ongoing consultations on the law have been criticised by PNM legislators in a scattershot way. MP Kareem Marcelle has decried the “politicisation” of the process. Dr Amery Browne has deemed it back-to-front, with the government’s mind made up. Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly has divined an “ethnic issue.” Some of these critiques are more persuasive than others, particularly since the UNC campaigned heavily on this issue and won. They all miss the mark, though, in addressing the root issue: harrowing home invasions demand strong action, balancing the rights of victims with the rights of society at large. More palatable might be the notion of letting people use force if this were accompanied by extensive firearms training and recertification, stronger forensics and CCTV coverage, and more sophisticated investigative capabilities that could disentangle competing accounts. Better vetting of who gets a gun might also provide reassurance. Unfortunately, this country’s record on each front does not inspire confidence. Nor does the record of the police. If trained law enforcement officers routinely kill criminals with scant regard to proportionality, why should citizens be expected to do better? Already, we are in a dire criminal environment. But the door could be opened to new forms of recklessness in which innocent neighbours and members of the public become collateral damage, as we have seen this month. And just as police killings have inspired criminals to strike first, there is no guarantee stand-your-ground will deter. On the contrary, more criminals may set out to kill. This is precisely the risk of escalation posed by the law. It is a risk the government must seriously answer. The post Giving people licence to kill appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.