In this na­tion, where gangs and guns are the main el­e­ments be­hind an un­re­lent­ing mur­der­ous ram­page, it was in­evitable that the right to bear arms would be one of the is­sues be­fore the Na­tion­al Ad­vi­so­ry Com­mit­tee on Con­sti­tu­tion­al Re­form.

Pub­lic safe­ty and calls for law-abid­ing cit­i­zens to be grant­ed le­gal ac­cess to firearms have been hot-but­ton is­sues gen­er­at­ing sub­stan­tial pub­lic and po­lit­i­cal con­cern that in­ten­si­fies with the ris­ing mur­der rate.

So, it was not sur­pris­ing that it came up dur­ing the pub­lic con­sul­ta­tions con­duct­ed by the com­mit­tee, led by for­mer House Speak­er Baren­dra Sinanan, at lo­ca­tions across the coun­try.

It is ad­dressed in the com­mit­tee’s re­port, which was made pub­lic on Wednes­day.

This is an is­sue that has sharply di­vid­ed pub­lic opin­ion, but how it will be ad­dressed in pro­posed amend­ments to the Con­sti­tu­tion re­mains to be seen.

Long be­fore the Con­sti­tu­tion re­form con­sul­ta­tions got off the ground, there had been calls from some seg­ments of the pop­u­la­tion for the right to bear arms to be made a fun­da­men­tal right.

Not­ing that T&T’s laws on firearm own­er­ship are re­stric­tive, the com­mit­tee point­ed out that the cur­rent re­stric­tive law gov­ern­ing firearm own­er­ship in T&T is an “over­rid­ing pol­i­cy based on the fact that firearms are dan­ger­ous weapons.” How­ev­er, the re­port al­so high­light­ed the State’s du­ty to pro­tect the pub­lic from mis­use of firearms.

The com­mit­tee agreed that “in­di­vid­u­als in­her­ent­ly have the right to de­fend them­selves against threats,” but em­pha­sised the “re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of the law en­force­ment agen­cies of the State to pre­vent crime through proac­tive mea­sures and poli­cies.”

On­go­ing fail­ures in this area have al­lowed for es­ca­lat­ing gun-re­lat­ed vi­o­lence with al­most dai­ly loss of lives.

For more than a decade, it has been most­ly a los­ing bat­tle for the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) and the oth­er en­ti­ties strug­gling to stem the flow of il­le­gal weapons in­to this coun­try.

Leg­isla­tive reme­dies in­tro­duced in re­cent years have not made much of a dif­fer­ence. There con­tin­ues to be a pro­lif­er­a­tion of il­le­gal firearms in the hands of crim­i­nals, while law-abid­ing cit­i­zens wait for years to be al­lowed le­gal gun own­er­ship.

This is an un­ten­able sit­u­a­tion, where those who obey the law are caught be­tween TTPS bu­reau­cra­cy and the gun-tot­ing crim­i­nals who are run­ning ram­pant across the coun­try.

Un­der the Firearms Act, a cit­i­zen may pur­chase, ac­quire or pos­sess a firearm or am­mu­ni­tion, on­ly if he/she has a li­cence grant­ed by the po­lice com­mis­sion­er.

It is a te­dious, frus­trat­ing process, which is why, at present, there are ap­prox­i­mate­ly 48,000 reg­is­tered firearm users in T&T — an es­ti­mat­ed firearms own­er­ship rate of 3.6 per 100 peo­ple.

Mur­ders, home in­va­sions, rob­beries and kid­nap­pings are among the gun-re­lat­ed crimes com­mit­ted with fright­en­ing reg­u­lar­i­ty in this coun­try, prompt­ing the clam­our for more firearms users’ li­cens­es to be giv­en to law-abid­ing cit­i­zens.

It doesn’t help that the main po­lit­i­cal par­ties are at op­po­site ends of the is­sue, with the Op­po­si­tion call­ing for cit­i­zens to be al­lowed to use dead­ly force to de­fend their homes and prop­er­ties and the Gov­ern­ment warn­ing that it could lead to a dan­ger­ous free-for-all.

Nei­ther side has pro­vid­ed much clar­i­ty on this po­lit­i­cal­ly po­lar­is­ing top­ic.

How­ev­er, in weigh­ing the pros and cons of less re­stric­tive firearms laws, it is the will of the peo­ple, not self-serv­ing po­lit­i­cal agen­das, that should pre­vail.