We have been around too long to expect a meeting as massive as the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) 2016 election launch in Sam Sharpe Square, Montego Bay, to be incident-free.

And much like the rest of the country, we are extremely relieved that the shooting incident which claimed three lives and left several injured was ruled out by police as an attack on the meeting by supporters of the ruling People’s National Party (PNP).

The collective sigh of relief is as a result of the bloodshed in the 1980 election, a dark place which the nation clearly does not wish to return to, when political violence resulted in the killing of 800 Jamaicans, plus the long history of internecine warfare between the two major political parties.

Besides helping to keep our people bitterly divided, political violence has given Jamaica a bad name overseas, frightened away some tourists and even returning residents, not to mention potential investors.

Sunday night’s shooting was quickly reported by NBC News, the big American agency. According to our own Nationwide Radio, NBC quoted JLP Leader Mr Andrew Holness as describing the incident as “an act of terror”.

We have not seen this report ourselves, but if it is inaccurate, Mr Holness should make haste to deny it. Jamaica can do without this association with terrorism, especially coming after the JLP Chairman Mr Robert Montague’s unsubstantiated claim that gas was bought from ISIS sources.

If the NBC report is accurate, Mr Holness must provide the kind of evidence that would justify a claim as dreadful as a terrorist act. To not do so would surely be a gross error on his part.

The JLP officially called the shooting a “barefaced and heartless attack on the democratic process”. Again, hopefully, that was not meant to give the impression that the incident was sparked by outside forces.

While it was obviously embarrassing that the shooting originated from within the meeting, it is important that nothing be done to signal retaliation and thus trigger widespread inter-party violence.

Matters were made worse by the utterances of JLP St James candidate Mrs Marlene Malahoo Forte who has described the police account as “premature” and asked the public instead to accept her “instincts” about what happened.

The police might yet be lauded for their quick intervention that assured the nation that it was not another ‘war’ between the two tribes and prevented those who would be tempted from exploiting a terrible situation.

Rather than trusting the instincts of a politician, we would prefer to hear that the JLP has been co-operating with the police in its investigations to determine how warring gunmen came to ensconce themselves in the heart of a meeting being attended by the party hierarchy. It is perhaps by sheer luck that more lives were not lost in the stampede that followed.

We also expect that the political ombudsman will do her own investigations and report to the nation on her findings. Such matters are not merely about a political meeting, but about the safety of the Jamaican people and protecting the good name of our country.

No one is sure how many tourists may have cancelled their vacation in Jamaica after that NBC report.