The Bahamas Christian Council President, Bishop Delton Fernander is expressing some degree of anxiety over the brazenness of violent crimes, a great deal of which happen in broad daylight and in public spaces .
“Even if they are pointed attacks of people known to the police, anybody at any time can be in the wrong place at the wrong time and be a victim to random gun fire.
“As a pastor and as a citizen of The Bahamas, there is great concern about it. So the church is with all of the citizen patrols staying connected to the church and we are thinking about an approach used in one of the U.S. States.
“This was a partnership with a church in the States, where guns were bought back from some of the criminals,” he said.
The intent said Bishop Fernander is not to give back a tremendous amount of cash in return for the weapons, but rather that the church is willing to partner with various businesses to ensure this is done safely.
It’s a program that has been adopted by several U.S states to reduce the number of weapons on the streets.
After all, year after year, police statistics show that guns are used in the vast majority of murders in The Bahamas.
“We’re also looking at the response that a Bahamian pastor did with Hilary Clinton with the church, weapons and crime.
“So we’re trying our best to be as creative as we can, to work with the Police Force and work with the other entities and do our part to bring change,” Bishop Fernander said.
With 12 homicides recorded so far for the new year, Bishop Fernander said this is the year to take a second look at initiatives started last year with the State and law enforcement and tweak what hasn’t worked.
“We’re in a country now where as I said on any given day, at any given time, you can be in the wrong place at the wrong time with the brazenness of these attacks and really be an innocent bystander and be killed.”
“So is there a fear? Yes there is, and it means that as citizens, we either decide to get involved to do what we can to solve the crime problem or we hide in our holes and hope that crime goes away, which is never a response that works.” he said.
