Posted on 12/04/2015 7:44:07 AM PST by marktwain
Jamaica is an island nation with draconian gun controls. It has one of the highest murder rates on the planet. It was not always so. In 1962, before independence, Jamaica had a murder rate of 3.9 per 100,000 population, one of the lowest in the world. It was lower than the U.S. murder rate of 4.6 per 100,000 in 1962. The U.S. murder rate in 2012 was slightly lower than in 1962; 4.5 per 100,000. Jamaica's murder rate in 2012 was 45.1, eleven times greater than it had been under British rule. The firearms act was first passed in 1967. Draconian enforcement of the act began in the middle 1970's. David Kopel sums it up well:
In response to a sharply rising crime rate in Jamaica in the early 1970s, the government imposed complete gun prohibition. In fact, possession of a bullet meant a mandatory life sentence in prison. There was a special gun court where people would be tried in secret for gun possession offenses. And in conjunction with this tremendous crackdown on guns, they also did everything else that you can imagine Oliver North or Ross Perot doing to our Bill of Rights in your worst nightmares. They had gun sweeps, drug sweeps, militarized law enforcement, the government breaking into people's houses, with no probable cause at all, to look for illegal weapons and drugs. Every kind of oppressive measure you could want, censorship of violent television and movies, everything you could want in terms of "let's get really serious and crack down and get rid of all these silly constitutional liberties that are standing in the way of rough and tough law enforcement," they did.
(Excerpt) Read more at ammoland.com ...
The murder rate had increased 1,000 percent by 2012, 50 years later. No, that is not a typo. One Thousand percent.
In addition, Jamaica has about the same demographic make-up which ObaMao would like to see in the United States.
In 1962 in England, you could walk into a gun shop, buy a shotgun and ammunition, and walk out. Buying a pistol required membership in a pistol club, but was not difficult.
A friend of mine, an American citizen, bought her first .45 in England while she was visiting their. To do so, she joined a pistol club. She had no problem bring the the pistols she bought there back to the United States.
This was in the 1960s.
I expect that the legal system of gun control in Jamaica was similar, or a bit less strict than in England at the time.
“bring the the” should be “bringing the”
Nobody on the planet seems to understand that it is “criminal control” laws that are needed.
Same thing up here in Canada. Until 1979 (when Firearms Acquisition Certificates were introduced as a way of diverting public attention from the 1976 removal of capital punishment from the Criminal Code), persons over the age of sixteen could simply walk into a decent sporting goods store and buy a standard hunting rifle or shotgun plus ammo, no questions asked or eyebrows raised. Somebody a few years back wrote a letter to the local paper here in Ottawa concerning his doing such a thing when he was about sixteen in 1972 and it involved him buying a couple of $20 Lee Enfield rifles at the Sears store and walking out with the rifles in full view, again no questions asked or eyebrows raised.
In the 60s my Dad traveled to Hartford, CT on business. While there, he went by the Colt factory and bought a revolver. He carried it home in his briefcase he carried on the plane on his return trip.
The 60s were a long time ago
PC till it hurts! :)
American law enforcement used to be well thought of, today not so much.
American tax compliance was the among the best. Some where between 0bama and Lois Lerner it has fallen off.
It appears to me that 0bama is the leader of a criminal gang.
In 1962 I took my .22 rifle to school in Inglewood, Ca and would walk to the range at Centinela Park after school. Things are so much better now in Inglewood with all that CA gun control(snark).
“Somebody a few years back wrote a letter to the local paper here in Ottawa concerning his doing such a thing when he was about sixteen in 1972 and it involved him buying a couple of $20 Lee Enfield rifles at the Sears store and walking out with the rifles in full view, again no questions asked or eyebrows raised.”
All over Western Civilization, freedoms have been attacked and lost as the left gained control over the media and traditional institutions came under attack.
Much of it has been in the name of political correctness. We may never know how much was funded by the old Soviet Union as a means of undermining the West, but we know that a significant amount of funding was allocated to disinformation and funding “soviet friendly” journalists.
Walter Cronkite was one of the most socialist “friendly”
journalist, and was often claimed to be the most trusted man in America, when he was secretly working his best to undermine the country.
In 1967 I took my cased Remington 870 on board a Boeing 727 & handed it to the stewardess. When I deplaned, she handed it back to me & said thank you for flying Delta.
In 1972 I returned from Vietnam with two bolt action rifles in a miniature golf bag. I walked down the concourse of SF Intl with the bag over my shoulder & the bayonets sticking out. Customs looked at them & said, “cool”.
In 1982 I came home on leave from Germany with six handguns in my suitcase. Customs checked the serial numbers with my BATF Form 6 Part II import license & said have a nice day.
How times have changed.
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