The number of types of illegal guns in St. Vincent and the Grenadines is baffling to acting Commissioner of Police, Enville Williams, he told a press conference this month.
Williams noted that a 90-day amnesty was held this year from March 1 to May 31.
During the amnesty, 17 firearms and 327 rounds of ammunition were surrendered to police.
“And then since that period, the police continue to do searches and seizures. And the level, type of firearm that is seen on our street continues to baffle me as an individual, and it ought to frighten or baffle you as a person too.”
The police chief was speaking at a press conference at which they displayed an assortment of firearms and ammunition, including an AR-15 rifle — a prohibited weapon — seized since the amnesty ended.
His comments also came hours before police would recover another AR-15 rifle and 171 rounds of ammunition, including 71 rounds of 5.56mm ammunition — prohibited ammunition — at a house in Glen.
“… in our society, there are a lot of us who know something, and we are not bold enough or patriotic enough, I will dare say, to lead the police to where these weapons are,” Williams said.
“… today, it might be somebody else, but tomorrow it might be you who is crying because of the violence that is perpetrated against you, or somebody close to you by these illegal, illicit firearms and ammunition.”
He urged all “loving, law-abiding, patriotic Vincentians” to join with the Royal St. Vincent police force “to do all that we can do within the ambit of the law to rid our streets and our communities of these senseless murders and illegal, illicit firearms and ammunition that so often cause pain to mothers and children and families as they are the ones who have to cry themselves to sleep at the death of a loved one,” Williams said.
Meanwhile, speaking at the same press conference, acting Assistant Commissioner of Police responsible for crime-fighting, Trevor “Buju” Bailey said he wished that Vincentians could retire the numbers 9, 11, 15, 16, 32, 38, 44 and 45.
“… I wish we could retire those numbers from our daily conversation on the blocks. … the numbers are really numbers that are associated to firearms. Those are the calibre of the firearms. So I want you to retire those numbers for that purpose. We ought not to be remembering the calibre of these firearms. We want those to be out of our vocabulary.”
St. Vincent and the Grenadines has recorded 54 homicides this year, one less than the record set in 2023, which replaced the 2022 record of 42.