Dear Source:
Scott Fagan would like a gun-free VI. I used to feel the same way. Emotionally we might think that this would be a good idea. After my wife was held up at gun-point, I began to do research and have come to a very different opinion. Guns aren't dangerous. It is the criminals who carry guns that are. Honest people who carry guns do so to protect all of us. What we need here is more honest people willing and allowed to carry guns, not fewer.
Studies show that in every jurisdiction that frees honest citizens to protect themselves, the crime rates go down. Contrarily, when guns are removed from honest citizens, criminals abound. Also eventually the politicians devolve into dictators like in Haiti and Cuba. A gun-free VI would be an open season for criminals…what would they have to fear? Who would stop them? We have far too few police here to adequately protect us. And really, police only show up after the fact, not in time to protect anyone. The VI is not a safe place: look at all the concertina wire everywhere and the bars on the windows. Look at the level of criminal violence here. Look at the blatant disregard for law here: people selling bootleg movies right in front of Kmart and elsewhere. In such an environment I reserve the right to protect my home and my family and if criminals are going to use guns, then so must I. I will not be a sheep ready for slaughter.
Roger Morse
Queens Quarter, Christiansted
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