Latest update June 17th, 2026 12:40 AM
Guns – anxiety, safety, trust
Editorial…
(Kaieteur News) – Guns are back in the news, and they represent more than the seemingly regular reports of a lone handgun seized. Ten AK-47 weapons intercepted in Berbice, according to the Guyana Police Force (GPF). Twenty-three of the same type found with a Venezuelan driver, The type of weapons and the number of them are alarming. These are not pistols with limited capacity, but guns that can inflict heavy damage on life and limb. Four men have been remanded to prison, with the Venezuelan locked there now. The GPF believes that more than these four, as alleged, are involved. There is a network in operation. How many of such networks, how big are they, how dangerous, and with what objectives?
These are questions that should leave everyone uneasy. The four men from the first bust are from across Guyana. That in itself raises the issues of who brought them together, and for what objectives. The fact that the serial numbers of the guns have been tampered with indicates sophistication and all manner of intent, none lawful. We at this paper recall what has since been dubbed the 2002 Mashramani Jailbreak. The five men who escaped were able to acquire an array of sophisticated weapons, and blazed a trail of havoc and death across many communities of Guyana. Older Guyanese have horrible memories of that time, and how difficult it was for the dangerous escapees to be located. Now, there is the Venezuelan addition, and what that says.
Government is credited for beefing up the national law enforcement apparatus, through significant budget allocations. New buildings for the GPF, new vehicles, new equipment, new techniques and approaches to crimefighting, among other developments, have all been part of helping the GPF to get on top of crime. GPF reports note that ‘serious crime’ is down. Do Guyanese feel safer? Are they prone to over imagination and burden themselves with unnecessary psychological baggage? Could it be that they are on the right track, because the news from the street confirms that illegal guns are everywhere, and that their fear is well-grounded?
Reports were of seven pistols missing from the Cove and John Police Station in April of this year. When guns go missing from a GPF precinct that causes citizens to worry. We think that that reaffirms the obvious. What more are they ignorant of, and with how much danger involved? A month earlier, two pistols were seized by the GPF, one in Ruimveldt, the other in Corriverton. In the first month of this year, a .38 revolver was found in Linden, while two shotguns were seized in Chenapou. In the same month of January, 16 guns seized. For every illegal firearm removed from the street, citizens breathe a sigh of relief.
We at this paper have mixed feelings. There is gratitude for the diligence of the GPF, on the one hand. On the other hand, are these all the guns that are loose on Guyana’s streets and villages, and in the wrong hands, either criminal or otherwise? The concern, and it is a big one to grapple with, is how many illegal guns are still in various neighbourhoods of Guyana? Who have them, and what could they be plotting? We still remember the 30 AK-47s that disappeared in 2006 from the armory of the Guyana Defence Force. Towards the close of 2010, 20 of the 30 AK-47s were recovered by the GPF. Now there is the Venezuelan factor which adds a major dimension to the insecurity that Guyanese feel, and the question is how many of such Venezuelan moles there may be, and leading to where.
With old gun losses and new ones occurring in a continual stream, it could be said with conviction that too many guns are in the wrong hands in this country, and poses great dangers for ordinary citizens. When reports surface of assassination plots against the head of Guyana’s leading drug interdiction agency, CANU, that does not leave citizens in a good place. When guns disappear from army and police inventories, and with Guyana having porous borders alongside three countries, crime control faces new challenges. Official corruption at chronic levels does not help. Who to trust? Who feels safe?
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