The battle for Long Island is starting to heat up as the Free National Movement’s candidate for the island Adrian Gibson and the island’s representative and Opposition Leader in the House of Assembly Loretta Butler Turner have currently engaged in a war of words on social media.
The back and forth began last week when Mr. Gibson made a post on Facebook advocating for a “Right To Carry” law in The Bahamas allowing citizens to rightfully bare arms, something Mrs. Butler Turner disagreed with.
She further denounced Mr. Gibson’s proposal saying statistical and anecdotal evidence suggested that this does not do anything to decrease serious crimes or murder.
To the contrary, she said, there are likely to be increased suicides, domestic related murders and intimidation by those perceived to carry firearms.
However, yesterday Mr. Gibson called her comments as “political brownie points.”
“It is indicative of the unabated salivation on the part of Mrs. Butler-Turner to gain cheap political brownie points in pursuit of another headline. I will not be distracted by that I plainly and clearly stated, on no less than three occasions, that my post was my personal view.
My post was not meant to propose overall solutions to crime; it was not a prescription.
“Clearly, in her haste to reply, Mrs. Butler-Turner failed to conduct any research. A simple Google search of my past columns would show my position on crime and approaches thereto Surely, Mrs. Butler-Turner ought to know that I would not be so naïve and glib to propose that the issuance of hand gun licenses, on a case by case basis, would be the panacea to crime.
“If Mrs. Butler-Turner had bothered to check, she would note that The Bahamas’ Firearms Act already makes provision for applicants deemed suitable to carry concealed hand guns. However, it is prohibitive and subjective and, from the looks of things, there are no set criteria that one could meet and be guaranteed, upon meeting the same, of attaining a permit. As it stands, it is within the discretion of the Commissioner of Police to issue Special Licenses or Firearm Certificates for handguns,” Mr. Gibson said.
He added that neighboring countries in the region have enacted such laws without any real negative effects.
“Surely, Mrs. Butler-Turner—with a little research—would have discovered that our neighbours to the south, the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI), have been issuing ‘keep and carry’ licenses for years now.
“I invite Mrs. Butler-Turner to re-read my post and then contrast it to her press release. She would quickly find that she ventured on a frolic of her own. Bahamians should feel intellectually insulted by her vacuous response.
“I venture to ask Mrs. Butler-Turner the following: “Why should government ministers be granted special firearm licenses when the average businessman and high-risk persons are exposed to far more threats and face more danger in one week than a minister faces in a year?”
Mrs. Butler-Turner’s response was an unreasoned, knee-jerk reaction,” Mr. Gibson said.
Mr. Gibson last month in an interview with The Journal said during his campaign he would hope to shy away from the political banter with his opponents.
