With the skyrocketing rate of crime in this country, and more specifically, the amount of robberies amoung the small businesses in New Providence and Grand Bahama, suggestions have been made for some legislation that would support the legalization of small firearms for business owners. This has led to controversey on both sides of the debate, and warrants more discussion. What do you think?


Personally, I have felt that business owners have been at a disadvantage for decades when it comes to protection w/ firearms. I feel that they should have handguns, and be able to more effectively protect themselves and their property. The fact of the matter is, is that the majority of robberies are conducted w/ ILLEGAL HANDGUNS, which leaves the poor shop owner basically defenseless, even if they have a shotgun. The legalizing of handguns is long overdue, and I feel that with proper and STRICT REGULATION, and PROPER TRAINING (by the Police Force or other qualified small arms specialists), the legalizing of handguns can have a significant effect on reducing the number of robberies, and attempted robberies in our country.

Im all for it .. people have a right to protect their livelihood.
Why should the cops and the criminals be the only ones "allowed" to have a gun.


At that token Nurses should be given guns to I guess and so should security guards and taxi drivers and everyone who has been held up, short or killed......

I'm against it (hand guns) personally but that's just my 5censt.
Yinna all entitled to your own opinion so let us hear it.

Please don’t attack or fight someone because they don’t agree with you or walk with you I see dogs do this all the time….

Shotguns are permissible in certain circumstances so apply for yours.

Reality is alot of business owners DO have shotgun licences, for pigeon shooting .. but they use them for self defence, and the law actually permits this....


That in itself is hilarious.

You buss off a shot gun in a private business trying to hit a burgular, w/ people in and around the business, and you will have a human tradgety in the making.

Sometimes I feel we live in a time capsule that's broken on 1973.



:(

did you read the statement from the cops, the big cheif said he preferred if civilians didnt have guns .. but then i guess he is okay with criminals having one .. and for real they need to get the security trained properly to handle guns, cause they really are kind of useless without a gun in nassau ...lots of work there though ..




I made a sad joke w/ a friend of mine a few yrs ago, concerning a security guards first line of defence being his cell phone. Truss me, I really feel for those guys man. They are grossly underpaid, and have NO substancial defence mechanism.

:tdown:

Sometimes I feel we live in a time capsule that's broken on 1973.
:(


agreed... the laws haven't evolved with the times... it's not like it's particularly difficult to acquire a handgun in nassau... business owners should be able to legally protect themselves and their livelihoods in a meaningful way...

:screw: you know whats amazing??? on one hand, you people complain about crime, then you advocate de-criminalising gun possession! WTF? Gian, you do mention something about the problem being illegal handguns...i wonder HOW, in a country as small and corrupt as bahamas, those advocating gun possession, propose to effectively regulate gun control??? As i see it, we cant even protect our borders without a scandal, so HOW, prey tell, will we be safer, with more guns in the country? HOW can we be certain only those with a license will possess a gun??? This must be a joke! Look to the North-West, and consider the problems they are having there. :eek:

"all" the criminals have guns, so it is time to fight back. If you ever took a stroll into the police weapons room, you would fall out ... i did .. not fall out but darn close ... i went there once to do an alarm quotation a few years back ... wonder where all the illegal guns come from?? :p

Fact is you can get a shotgun licence and people use that as self defence, police advocate it and allow it, even though it is not meant as a self defence tool, just for pigeon shooting, so in essence it is illegal. I dont know one single business owner in Nassau that doesnt carry a shot gun when they leave their business, with their money, look at the armed trucks ... they can carry guns also, or so they think.

They need to allow busines owners to legally carry hand guns. Now is not the time to be soft, the criminals are on a robbing spree, they are treating Nassau like the wild west, time to do something about it ... shoot them all.


Rory: think about this. If the police have guns, yeah? and 'all' the criminals have guns? yeah? Then we have all the 'other illiegal weapons' in the country - not owned by the police or criminals? right? and to that, a license for all the shop owners to carry guns...what would Nassau be like?

Firing a gun is not a joke. Even police officers get it wrong sometimes. I know people feel 'powerful' with a gun, and understandably so, but shooting one is no joke. Guns kill and bullets dont have eyes. Giving these shopowners the right to bear arms is the easy way out. What about improving the police force to properly respond to emergencies? What about incentives to get more young people to join the force? Apparently the current salaries are a pittance! of course they have no enthusiasm to do their job! The avg cop in London now pulls £80,000 a year (with OT, etc) since the war on terror! DAMN! nearly USD150,000 for an avg copper on the beat? not bad! the RBPF needs an overhaul. they need to be more effective. The answer is not to arm civilians. :what:

Personally i dont see a problem with it ... everyone should have the right to bear arms .. i know im tired of getting robbed and kidnapped ... is a machete a safer weapon, cause i have a couple of those .. and I carry them everywhere i go. I wont hessitate to use them and other means of defence when i get robbed/attacked again, ill fight to the end.

darn, they make that much as cops in the the UK now ..? can i carry a gun as a UK cop now :cheers:

oh yeah, i weed my lawn with them machetes BTW and i carry them to weed my friends and clients lawns also .. ha ha ..

well yeah they make that much! was listening to a program with the Police Chief the other day! i was shocked, since Barristers can make as little as £12000!!! Of course they dont all make that amount, but he was talking about average for those who were making sh!tloads of overtime.

your kidnapping stories are horrendous. i think God must have a plan for you life *and the whole MB gasps* :angel: but really, i dont think allowing everyone to have a gun will solve the problem. on the contrary, it will make it worse!

Rory: think about this. If the police have guns, yeah? and 'all' the criminals have guns? yeah? Then we have all the 'other illiegal weapons' in the country - not owned by the police or criminals? right? and to that, a license for all the shop owners to carry guns...what would Nassau be like?
Firing a gun is not a joke. Even police officers get it wrong sometimes. I know people feel 'powerful' with a gun, and understandably so, but shooting one is no joke. Guns kill and bullets dont have eyes. Giving these shopowners the right to bear arms is the easy way out. What about improving the police force to properly respond to emergencies? What about incentives to get more young people to join the force? Apparently the current salaries are a pittance! of course they have no enthusiasm to do their job! The avg cop in London now pulls £80,000 a year (with OT, etc) since the war on terror! DAMN! nearly USD150,000 for an avg copper on the beat? not bad! the RBPF needs an overhaul. they need to be more effective. The answer is not to arm civilians. :what:

I agree with you 1000% I saw the other day a haitian security guard:cop: , trying to give the dog command, apparently the dog didn't understand creole.....many of the security companies now adays are hiring persons that are not of good character.....sometimes they set up robberies at these business places..because they are familiar with the "ins and outs" I have also noticed that business often display their cash in the register for all to see without being aware that they are setting themselves up....most business places that are robbed is because the owners failed to use proper judgement....and not willing to put in place adequate security measures in place to safe guard them selves.....:hammer: ... i was told of a program thats in place for off duty police officers being able to work at business places while being armed through the police staff associations:cop: for a fee... that is an alternative....if legislation is passed putting allowing business persons to do this....i believe we will have a more serious problem with firearms what happens to this weapon after it is issued ?? criminals will break into their homes and business places trying to steal it...or the business man will use this to walk around with like he is a cowboy in the wild wild west.... I say hell no to this idea:raw: :sparky: ....enforce the laws on the books and stop playing politics with stifer penalties

I agree with you 1000% I saw the other day a haitian security guard:cop: , trying to give the dog command, apparently the dog didn't understand creole.....many of the security companies now adays are hiring persons that are not of good character.....sometimes they set up robberies at these business places..because they are familiar with the "ins and outs" I have also noticed that business often display their cash in the register for all to see without being aware that they are setting themselves up....most business places that are robbed is because the owners failed to use proper judgement....and not willing to put in place adequate security measures in place to safe guard them selves.....:hammer: ... i was told of a program thats in place for off duty police officers being able to work at business places while being armed through the police staff associations:cop: for a fee... that is an alternative....if legislation is passed putting allowing business persons to do this....i believe we will have a more serious problem with firearms what happens to this weapon after it is issued ?? criminals will break into their homes and business places trying to steal it...or the business man will use this to walk around with like he is a cowboy in the wild wild west.... I say hell no to this idea:raw: :sparky: ....enforce the laws on the books and stop playing politics with stifer penalties

You are right! All we need is to have the law applied without fear or favor. But until that day comes, if it ever does, what are we to do? One can have all the protections in place but still one can become a victim.

I like guns! But I also realize that they can give a false sense of security. No matter how good one is with a gun, if the other guy has his gun on you and yours is in your pocket, there is little you can do.

I feel it would be a great mistake to allow anyone to get a side-arm, small business man or not :what:

A shot gun is useless, i want a hand gun.

As for the other thing, Nurses dont handle money, so they are not targets the same as a Business owner, Security Guards "should" but first they need to pay them a little more and that will never happen here, taxi drivers .. yeah they need it too.

Reality is business owners handle money, some of them, alot of it, they are the owners of the business, not an employee .. they have the right to protect their livilhoods and their employees jobs. cause if they keep losing money from robberies, then they have to close down.

Reality is alot of business owners DO have shotgun licences, for pigeon shooting .. but they use them for self defence, and the law actually permits this, all they need to do now is change the law so it is actually legal, but a shot gun against a hand gun, in close quarters, the hand gun will win.

Regardless of all of this, the law first has to actually prosecute criminals .. which they have a problem doing here.


I say get caught with an illegel firearm get life with no parole weld the cell shut.

You are right! All we need is to have the law applied without fear or favor. But until that day comes, if it ever does, what are we to do? One can have all the protections in place but still one can become a victim.
I like guns! But I also realize that they can give a false sense of security. No matter how good one is with a gun, if the other guy has his gun on you and yours is in your pocket, there is little you can do.
I feel it would be a great mistake to allow anyone to get a side-arm, small business man or not :what:

This is true they tried to break into my shop last night.

"all" the criminals have guns, so it is time to fight back. If you ever took a stroll into the police weapons room, you would fall out ... i did .. not fall out but darn close ... i went there once to do an alarm quotation a few years back ... wonder where all the illegal guns come from?? :p

Fact is you can get a shotgun licence and people use that as self defence, police advocate it and allow it, even though it is not meant as a self defence tool, just for pigeon shooting, so in essence it is illegal. I dont know one single business owner in Nassau that doesnt carry a shot gun when they leave their business, with their money, look at the armed trucks ... they can carry guns also, or so they think.

They need to allow busines owners to legally carry hand guns. Now is not the time to be soft, the criminals are on a robbing spree, they are treating Nassau like the wild west, time to do something about it ... shoot them all.

Anyone can get a hand gun in Nassau now, the thing is non criminals wont take the chance, as thats is i think 6 months in fox hill, and 6 months per bullet, so we just take the robbing, stabbing, and getting shot as thats just how it is if you want to be a good citizen.

I dont have guns myself, but i dont go anywhere without my own personal arsonal of alternative weapons .. this is a dangerous city .. thats just how it is ..

Man Rory a good friend of minds use to carry a handgun @ his business,the jokey thing is the criminals reported him to the cops.He's lucky the judge was in a good mood that day & let him off with a hefty fine & a warning.

Guns should not be legal in the Bahamas. Pointblank.

The problem is that crime is out of control. So the few people that have guns can't control crime. You think the solution is more people with guns?? That only means one thing. Instead of asking you for money at gunpoint, criminals will shoot you first then get your money before you shoot them.

And shops are public places. Do you want to have a shootout in a public place where there may be kids or elderly people?? No.