NATIONAL Security Minister Dr Peter Phillips said he was willing to consider a proposal that gunmen be allowed to swap illegal guns for projects benefiting their communities, but ruled out a cash-for-gun deal that community leaders suggested would help to silence the guns.

PHILLIPS. I am interested in all viable ideas that can make a difference to rid the country of crime

The proposal for a gun-for-projects arrangement between crime-infested communities and government emerged last week at a conference of community leaders under the auspices of the Peace Management Initiative (PMI) led by Bishop Herro Blair.

Orlando Hamilton, the PMI community counsel representative from the troubled Mountain View area, said to silence the guns and reduce gun crimes, the Government should immediately start a programme in the more than 51 crime-prone areas in Kingston where the PMI is working, to allow youths to exchange their illegal guns for projects and opportunities to benefit the community.

"I appeal to the government to start a project to allow youths to swap their guns for viable projects and opportunities and this will silence the guns," Hamilton said in a speech titled "Silencing the guns" and which appeared to get general endorsement at the annual PMI community leaders conference at the Jamaica Conference Centre in downtown Kingston.

Explaining how the programme would work, Hamilton said that every gun turned in would have a cost attached and paid for by government. "If a man hands over an M16 or an AK 47 (assault rifles) and those guns value $1 million, government would find viable projects and economic opportunities and give that person an economic base to set up a little business in the community to help himself and maybe employ two youths who want employment."

BLAIR. the handing in of illegal guns should be done voluntarily

"It would be a step in the right direction and a man no have fi depend on the gun for security," Hamilton argued.
Phillips, who also addressed the conference, told the Observer: "I am interested in all viable ideas that can make a difference to rid the country of crime and we are prepared to examine them (the proposals) when they come to us."

Phillips did not elaborate further but he has repeatedly stated that government was not interested in calling a gun amnesty, an element of Hamilton's proposal which also urged the government to establish a scheme with the security forces not to arrest those handing in guns "because the youths want to make a change for the better".

The security minister, in his earlier address, referred to the 13 illegal high-powered guns found recently by the police in August Town, saying that they had cost the perpetrators of crime millions of dollars to purchase and he wondered why the money was not used to buy some block-making machines to gainfully employ jobless youths in the community.

CHEVANNES. disagreed with proposal

Bishop Blair, in supporting Hamilton's call, told the Observer that if the guns were turned in, economic opportunities would have to be found for those handing over the guns. "I call it disarmament because the gun is an income-generating force in the community and if you take it out of their hands, you must find an economic replacement for them," Blair said.

Blair was also against a cash-for-gun arrangement and explained how he saw the proposal working: "Let's say a community needs a sewing machine... exchange it for the guns. It is providing an employment opportunity for someone," he said.

Blair who is also the political ombudsman, added that the handing in of the illegal guns should be done voluntarily and agreed that those doing so should be protected. Alternatively, the government should call a gun amnesty, he said.

But PMI member, Professor Barry Chevannes disagreed with the proposal, saying it was not workable. "It can't be done now. It makes no sense. I don't think it is opportune. We have mentioned it and have been met by stout resistance... that of itself will not work."

Although conceding that it must be the PMI's goal to get government to seal off the country from (gun) smuggling, Chevannes said the proposal would amount to a band-aid in the effort to rid the streets of illegal guns.

In his address, Phillips said the PMI concept was so successful that other communities throughout the island wanted to embrace it. In this regard, a PMI would soon be launched in Montego Bay, the St James capital.

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