I read a letter by J. Walker in Thursday's edition of The Gleaner where he (or she?) encouraged people to fight gunmen without guns. Instead, we were encouraged to stand united against them. To fight and die unarmed. To emulate Jamaican heroes, like Nanny, who fought for the freedom of future generations, despite never seeing freedom themselves.

Just a thought: Nanny did in fact see freedom in her lifetime. She lived as a free woman in the hills of Jamaica. Not only that. She carried a gun and so did many of her followers. The only people who attempted to disarm her were the British army, and they were her enemy.

Simple fact

You see, it's a simple fact of life. Fighting gunmen is a job. The gun is the tool for performing that job and the man who prevents you from using the tool required for the task at hand simply does not want you to perform that task. Whether the worker is a policeman, a security guard or an ordinary homeowner, the gun is still the proper tool for the job of resisting the demands of a gunman.

Earlier this week, families in Gravel Heights had to pack up their belongings and move out, under similar circumstances as many other internal refugees over the years. Entire squatter communities were built by people, who fled garrisons under similar conditions, leaving homes that they had paid for behind. Are these people wimps? Are they cowards? No. I won't join you in insulting decent people that way. They are good citizens of a nation whose government has insisted on penalty of permanent imprisonment that they must flee from gunmen.

Civilised countries

In civilised countries, if a gunman enters a community and orders any resident to surrender his legitimate property rights, the authorities do everything in their power to defend that citizen and his right to whatever he paid for and pays taxes on. If they have the manpower available, they move police officers into his yard to stand guard 24/7. If they do not have the manpower to post guards, they allow the homeowner and his family to stand guard of their home with the proper tools for that job.

If the decent law-abiding people in Gravel Heights were allowed to buy a few guns and some ammunition as soon as a gunman threatens them, would they be "cotching" somewhere else or sleeping under their own roofs right now? If the government had any respect for them, or the other 2.7 million like them, would they be assisted to pack up and leave or would they be helped to stay where they belong?

I am, etc.,

Kevin Forge