Parents and other adults in homes are being urged to find the courage to speak out when they see firearms and discourage certain types of behaviour before they take root.
Commissioner of Police Richard Boyce made the call during a media conference at the Barbados Police Service’s City headquarters in Roebuck Street, on Friday, in response to a recent crime spike which has claimed four lives in as many days.
Boyce said people were coming home from fetes or were tired, undressing and leaving firearms around the house, in the living and dining rooms.
“Parents, brothers and sisters, others, are seeing these firearms and tidy up the house, sweeping and things like that, and dare not touch those firearms because persons within the houses are living in fear,” he said.
“So people in various communities, that is the adults, must have the courage to tell the siblings, their children, whoever they are in the house, ‘not in here, not in here, not roun’ me’. . .
“If every household has some person who can speak that type of language, then the persons who are coming up in those households would get the message and do not handle firearms,” he added.
Boyce said there was a market for the weapons – lending, selling and buying – that has to be dismantled, but this was not a matter for the Police Service alone, rather every law-abiding citizen had a part to play.
He again urged the public to support police in their efforts to fight violent crime. (SAT)