Fol­low­ing a home in­va­sion near her res­i­dence that left a fam­i­ly of sev­en se­vere­ly trau­ma­tised, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar reaf­firmed that “Stand Your Ground” leg­is­la­tion will be brought to Par­lia­ment be­fore the end of 2025, say­ing her gov­ern­ment must work hard­er to en­sure cit­i­zens feel safer.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar told Guardian Me­dia that while mur­ders and oth­er se­ri­ous crimes have de­creased, some cit­i­zens may still not feel se­cure.

“We need to clamp down on home in­va­sions, ve­hi­cle thefts and rob­beries. While the sta­tis­tics show an ac­tu­al de­cline, cit­i­zens are not sens­ing or feel­ing a de­crease in fear. This is be­cause of the years of trau­ma from vi­o­lent crime and mur­ders. We have to work hard­er to im­prove on the gains made thus far,” the Prime Min­is­ter said.

Dur­ing her in­au­gur­al ad­dress to the na­tion af­ter be­ing sworn in as Prime Min­is­ter in May, she pledged a safer Trinidad and To­ba­go with­in six months.

She told Guardian Me­dia to­day, “This is why I am bring­ing the stand your ground laws and leg­is­la­tion to make le­gal firearms more ac­ces­si­ble. This will em­pow­er cit­i­zens and give them a fight­ing chance as a last line of de­fence against home in­va­sions and rob­beries.”

Ear­li­er this week, At­tor­ney Gen­er­al John Je­re­mie con­firmed that the “Stand Your Ground” leg­is­la­tion, of­fi­cial­ly ti­tled the Home In­va­sion (Self-De­fence and De­fence of Prop­er­ty) Bill, 2025, will be brought to Par­lia­ment be­fore the end of the year. How­ev­er, he did not re­spond to fol­low-up ques­tions re­gard­ing the ex­act tim­ing of its in­tro­duc­tion or its cur­rent stage of readi­ness.

The Prime Min­is­ter al­so said sev­er­al oth­er pieces of leg­is­la­tion aimed at cre­at­ing a safer so­ci­ety will be brought to Par­lia­ment for de­bate in the fi­nal weeks of 2025.

“In ad­di­tion to the stand your ground laws, leg­is­la­tion on the use of fire­works will soon be brought to Par­lia­ment. The AG is work­ing on leg­is­la­tion to in­crease the ages for the sale and use of gan­ja, al­co­hol and for par­tic­i­pat­ing in gam­bling. All of these are be­ing tar­get­ed for pas­sage in Par­lia­ment this year.”

Guardian Me­dia ob­served that this is an am­bi­tious leg­isla­tive agen­da, giv­en there are on­ly a few weeks left in 2025.

But the Prime Min­is­ter said, “I think it’s pos­si­ble. We have to try.”

Ac­knowl­edg­ing the at­tack on the fam­i­ly at Phillip­ine to­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said it is an­oth­er re­minder that her gov­ern­ment must work hard­er. She added that she plans to have the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al, Min­is­ter of Fi­nance and Jus­tice Min­is­ter meet with Chief Jus­tice Ron­nie Boodoos­ingh to dis­cuss ways the gov­ern­ment can as­sist in im­prov­ing ju­di­cial ef­fi­cien­cy.

Ear­li­er this week, the Prime Min­is­ter said that Unit­ed States mil­i­tary ki­net­ic strikes on sus­pect­ed drug ves­sels have led to a de­cline — and ef­fec­tive­ly, a short­age — of il­le­gal drugs en­ter­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Mean­while, Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro agreed with Per­sad-Bisses­sar that the re­cent tar­get­ed U.S. bomb­ings of sus­pect­ed drug-smug­gling ves­sels off the coast of Venezuela have al­ready had a “mea­sur­able im­pact” on Trinidad and To­ba­go’s drug trade.