A High Court judge has urged people fascinated with firearms to pursue lawful careers in the security forces rather than engage in illegal activity.
During the sentencing hearing of a St Michael man convicted of illegally having a firearm and ammunition, Justice Christopher Birch stressed that there appeared to be a “morbid and often fatal fascination of our people with firearms”.
He said: “If you are so fascinated with carrying a weapon, join the entities that lawfully are permitted to do so. Young people of ambition and sense, if they have this desire to carry a firearm are free to join the Barbados Police Service or Barbados Defence Force instead of wandering around at all hours making nuisances of themselves, and turning themselves into killers and their victims into the deceased.”
The country was reaching “the point of national exhaustion” when it comes to firearm offences, said the judge.
But he however noted: “No matter how tired we may be of our young men, and I note that some young women are becoming involved in firearm offences, it is not our intention to give up when it comes to the enforcement of the law. We cannot give up. Nothing less than our national life is at stake and we cannot afford to give up in the face of the thuggery of a few, and it is a few.”
He made the comments moments before ordering Meleke Shaquan Itiel Chase-Mapp, 22, of Buckingham Road, St Michael, to pay $20 000 in fines for having a .32 revolver and five rounds of ammunition on September 6, 2024, without valid licences.
Commending Chase-Mapp for pleading guilty at the earliest opportunity, the judge said: “I hope that going forward, he would channel that honesty into doing the right thing all the time because he had no business carrying around a firearm. That was his choice and if he has lost 666 days of his time, he has no one to blame but himself.”
After considering the aggravating factors of the offence, Justice Birch reached a ten-year starting point for the firearm and seven years for the ammunition, before reducing the sentence owing to Chase-Mapp’s guilty plea and time spent on remand.
Noting that he had one previous conviction, but that it was not related to this offence, the judge settled for the alternative non-custodial sentence of a fine of $15 000 for the firearm and $5 000 for the ammunition.
Chase-Mapp was ordered to pay $5 000 immediately and to settle the balance in nine months.
If breached, he will serve 1 524 days for the firearm and 794 days for the ammunition, to run concurrently.
Chase-Mapp, who was represented by attorney Ensley Grainger, told the court: “I would like it to be known that after the 666 days I have spent in prison, I would no longer be on the wrong side of the law.”
Justice Birch replied: “Turn things around and do good because God forbid you come back because the well of mercy may have run dry and we don’t want that.”
Principal State Counsel Romario Straker prosecuted the case.
(JB)
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