Virgin Islanders who usher in the New Year with a blaze of gunfire risk losing their firearm along with the right to own another, St. Thomas/St. John Police Chief Darrin Foy said Friday.
Some people honk their car horns as the clock strikes midnight, ushering in the new year. Others twirl noisemakers, blow horns, or bang pots and pans. But some people, an alarming number in the USVI, can think of no better way to celebrate turning the calendar than by turning the soft Caribbean night into something sounding more like a firefight in a combat zone.
Foy said the V.I. Police Department will be out throughout the territory on New Year’s Eve, on the lookout for people firing celebratory gunshots into the air.
"We are going to be doing what we have been doing," he said. "We have various initiatives planned for that night, but I don’t want to give specifics. We’re telling people not to do it."
This year the police department acquired equipment which helps them home in on the source of gunshots, so the chance of being caught is greater.
Foy said that even if a person has a license for a gun, and legally possesses it, if they shoot it randomly into the night sky they are not only recklessly endangering other people, they are endangering their gun ownership. Police can seize the gun, and the act can cause the gun license to be revoked.
"That’s certainly true," he said. "That’s illegal discharge of a firearm."
Lt. Gov. Gregory Francis issued a statement asking Virgin Islanders to refrain from the practice to avoid the risk of injury and further violence as the territory welcomes 2013.
“This practice of firing weapons shows no regard for the health and safety of our community," Francis said. "It is not a Virgin Islands tradition – like the ringing of church bells to celebrate the fresh start of a new year. It goes against our cultural traditions of bringing in the New Year peacefully with family and friends and enjoying New Year’s Eve festivities without fear of being injured by a stray gunshot. Let us … welcome 2013 in ways that demonstrate our resolve to end gun violence throughout our community.”
Francis said he hopes a calm, peaceful New Year’s Eve will set the tone for the remainder of the year.
That hasn’t been the recent history. A stroll through the Source’s recent archives shows the troubling trend of New Year’s gunfire has been growing.
In 2007, a reader commented in an open forum: "The usual volley of gunshots rang out in my neighborhood. Not in my immediate area but they echoed from down the street and went on for so long that I called 911. The dispatcher was polite but advised that the department was aware of it but that it was ‘New Year’s Eve.’ I’ve lived here long enough to know that this gunshot barrage is for some bizarre reason a customary practice, but I also know that innocent people can be wounded and killed by such randomly fired bullets. What goes up comes down and can also be deflected."
Four years later, reporter Ananta Pancham wrote: "In my Altona neighborhood, the gunshots lasted for at least two hours, filling the air with the consistent sounds of everything from automatic weapons to what seemed like bombs falling in the streets. Last year, the volleys were shorter, with the hailstorm of bullets lasting about half an hour. A few of the shots ended up hitting a transformer and blowing out the power for a few minutes, but after a while, my husband and I were able to venture outside and watch the fireworks over the harbor. But this year it was impossible to do so."
And when the current year dawned, the Source had this story from reporter Karen Hollish: "Many on St. Thomas did not mark the New Year with noisemakers, confetti or a kiss. Instead, they listened in horror to the unrelenting sound of rapid gunfire, which started when the Episcopal church bells pealed their welcome to 2012 and continued, for several tense hours … As a resident of Bunker Hill, I had a front-row seat to this one-of-a-kind New Year’s Eve show in ‘America’s Paradise.’ The first act, when midnight hit, was certainly dramatic: The shots crisscrossed the valley below me, and they did not begin to slow down for a full 30 minutes." Hollish quoted a Facebook conversation with other St. Thomas residents. "’Our place was surrounded with machine gun fire,’ the North Side woman continued. ‘I’m not afraid of guns, but this had me on the effing floor and concerned with protecting my life.’"
