Don’t Show This Handgun Image
Basseterre, St. Kitts – Nevis
January 11, 2011 (CUOPM)
St. Kitts and Nevis‘ Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas has called for an end the use of gun graphics in the reporting of crime.
Although referring to the unsettling uses of gun graphics, often on the front pages of a certain newspaper, in an attempt to score some type of political advantage, it must be pointed out that other electronic and newspapers use similar gun
“It is not a very pleasant experience for Kittitians and Nevisians to pick up a newspaper and see the close-up of the barrel of a gun staring right back at them. And it does not help to create the type of psychological calm and stability that we all need to healthily exist. It is also highly irresponsible, at a time of extreme global hardship, for political types in St. Kitts and Nevis, to place on the front page of their newspaper a photograph of any cruise ship with any type of weapon in any way pointed at, or in a position to suggest a threat to, that cruise ship,” said Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas in his weekly radio call-in programme “Ask the Prime Minister.”
Dr. Douglas warned that at a time when the Caribbean and the world are keenly aware of the destabilizing impact of violence, it is essential that nothing is done that would promote, normalize, or visually heighten in any way the role of weapons in the society.
“Just as any act that has the potential to sabotage the agricultural sector, would sabotage all; and just as any act that has the potential to sabotage the work of, say, our security forces, would sabotage us all; so, too, does any act with the potential to sabotage and undermine the tourism sector, with the multitude of ancillary workers and entrepreneurs attached to this industry, sabotage and undermine us all,” Dr. Douglas told listeners to the one-hour programme that is syndicated on ZIZ Radio, Choice FM (Nevis), Kyss FM, Sugar City Rock, Radio One and Freedom FM.
Prime Minister Douglas noted that St. Kitts and Nevis has strict licensing requirements where firearms ownership and usage are not to be taken lightly.
“Regardless of political affiliation, therefore, we all have a special obligation to be extremely circumspect in our usage of weapons, as a visual symbol, to make a political point or gain some type of political advantage. That is a path it really is best that none of us take,” said Dr. Douglas, who recognised the fact that “some have already begun walking down that path of using these unsettling symbols, but what we can do, and what we must do, is turn back, leave that path, and never go there again.”