KINGSTON, Jamaica — Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Clifford Blake has called for a mandatory minimum sentence for gun crimes in Jamaica.

Speaking yesterday at a private/public sector partnership forum on crime in New Kingston, the senior cop commented: “Jamaica is awash with guns”.He said that stronger sentences are needed to fight the demand for and use of the weapon in committing various cries.He said that he fully supports a suggestion made by former police commissioner Owen Ellington that there should be a mandatory minimum sentence for gun offences.“I remember him saying that there should be a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years, and I would support it,” DCP Blake told the Guardsman Group-sponsored forum.“Every young man, in some communities, wants to have a gun, and when a shipment arrives from Haiti, there are more buyers actually waiting for them,” he said.He said that unless the country can find some way to reduce the demand for guns in some communities, there are going to be serious problems, because there are too many willing users.“We have too many guns, so we will have to find a way to cut the supply and cut the appetite for them,” he said.Balford Henry