By Dean Weingarten



Arizona -(Ammoland.com)- British Tourists flock to Jamaica, where they tend to stay in fenced in tourist hotels that are off limits to most locals. Now they being told to stay in their rooms.

The reason: sky-high murder rates and a recent spate of killings.

From mirror.co.uk:

British holidaymakers in Jamaica have been told to stay in their resorts by the Foreign Office after a state of emergency was declared following a series of shootings. Troops have been put on the streets following the killings in Montego Bay, which is popular with tourists. It follows a series of shootings including a driveby shooting which killed one person, and the shooting of another four times on a roundabout near to the main airport Sansgster international on Tuesday. The country's Prime Minister issued a State of Emergency and put security services and troops on the street to tackle the gunmen after a record 335 murders last year in the area. He has now ordered a massive house-to-house search in the St. John's area for the gunmen and tourists are being tole to stay in their hotel rooms.

The 2017 murder rate for Jamaica was 42.6 per 100,000 population, one of the highest in the world. It is not as high as Baltimore, Maryland, where the rate reached 55.8 in 2017. Many attribute the Baltimore murder rate to a lack of police presence. Police drastically reduced their activities after several officers were charged in the 2015 death of Freddie Gray. The officers were eventually found not guilty of all charges.

In the article in the Mirror, this excuse is given:

“But what people need to know is this is a developing country with all the associated problems and with the high murder rate unfortunately life is cheap.”

It was not always so. In 1962, Jamaica's murder rate was lower than the murder rate in the United States. 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 2016 was slightly higher than in 1962; 5.4 per 100,000.

The 2017 numbers are a little lower but have not been released yet. Jamaica's murder rate in 2017 was 42.6, nearly eleven times greater than it had been under British rule.

Jamaica has some of the most restrictive gun control laws in the world. They were imposed in 1967, shortly after independence from the U.K. There is a special Gun Court, without the need for hard evidence.

Conviction is life in prison without parole. In spite of the draconian gun controls, far stricter than what exists in England, (or perhaps because of them) the murder rate in Jamaica is more than 40 times higher than the murder rate in England.

After independence from the U.K. in 1962, Jamaica has had 55 years of “development”. I find it difficult to see how this “development” has improved the island or the lives of the people there.

An American who lived in Jamaica in 1961 reported that there was no problem in bringing a pistol to the island in 1960, or in possessing it at that time.

Murder rates are almost entirely about culture and the rule of law. Remove respect for the rule of law, and murder rates soar.

Jamaica is essentially ruled by competing gangs of thieves. The possession of guns is not the cause of the high murder rate in Jamaica.

It is the change of the government from one in which most of the population trusted the police and the application of the rule of law, into a government in which criminal gangs trade rule based on who can commit the most vote fraud in the latest elections.

Gun control is simply a ruse to distract the public from the real cause of the murders – a government that is allied with the criminal gangs, and a corrupt police force.

2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.

About Dean Weingarten:

Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of constitutional carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and recently retired from the Department of Defense after a 30-year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.