In Trinidad and Tobago, there is much discussion about crime because… well, there’s been a lot of crime, so much so that there’s a Wikipedia page on crime in Trinidad and Tobago. Every administration blames the last administration, playing checkers for getting elected, but the crime has risen through all involved political parties running things over the past 3 decades.

The latest stab – or shot – at crime seems to be giving everyone gun licenses. On the surface, it gives a lot of people a sense of security to be able to get something only criminals seem to have. Right after an election, any criticism of the present government is seen as ‘anti-UNC’ – the political party that won was UNC. Just as any criticism of the past administration was seen as ‘anti-PNM’.

It’s a tired way of shutting down valid conversations. I have seen it in every country I’ve lived in or visited. Group-think offers comfort, and that comfort rivals religion in its power.

I do not care for politics. Both major parties are interchangeable to me. I criticize what I know in the hope that something useful can grow through the cracks in the political concrete.

My Criticism Of Stand Your Ground Laws and Firearm User License Propagation.

Really, I don’t have much criticism of these ideas. I myself applied for a weapon more than once in Trinidad and Tobago some decades ago, where I was told behind closed doors who to bribe and who I would have to buy the gun from. Oddly, the present political party in charge then is the same party.

I do not have much issue with the idea of responsible gun ownership. I myself applied for a firearm license in Trinidad and Tobago more than once, decades ago. I was told who to bribe and who I would need to buy the weapon from.

My applications were “lost.”

I got the bureaucratic shuffle that corruption feeds on.

The thing about it is that I have owned guns in the United States for decades. I am a U.S. Navy veteran and having worked with the United States Marine Corps as their Corpsman, I got not only to train further with weapons but also further in dealing with the wounds. In essence, I know what I’m talking about.

The criticism is here: with more firearms licenses comes more guns to civilians. Training requirements aren’t very high, and the understanding of the responsibility of having a weapon is not seemingly making the rounds as much as the political grandstanding.

My Criticism of Stand Your Ground Laws and Firearm License Expansion

Legal access to guns means new risks. People who did not have firearms before could now shoot themselves or someone else by accident.

It might not happen often. It might happen frequently. But it will happen.
That risk depends entirely on how good the training is.

No one is talking about that. They should be.

If my neighbor has a gun and fires it accidentally, I could be hit in my wooden house. In a concrete house, the round could come through a window and ricochet. If someone fires a gun into the air—something people still do – the bullet might come down through my roof.

That is what proper training is supposed to prevent.

But where is the training?
Where is the mental health screening?
Where is the long-term planning for what these policies will do to households and neighborhoods?

Guns in homes can find their way into schools.
Guns in moments of depression can end lives.
Guns in disputes can escalate arguments into killings.

I have seen it – on duty as an EMT, as a sailor, and as a civilian.

Firearms are responsibility.
You do not just buy one and forget it. You have to train often. You have to know where your backstops are. You have to silhouette the intruder against something that can safely catch a round.

Because even well-trained people miss.

And if the criminal wins, they now have your gun and ammunition.

It also doesn’t address the underlying issues of the violent crime, which every government has been great at ignoring.

The Policy Is a Liability Unless It Comes with Thoughtful Structure

Without proper training, mental health checks, secure storage, and legal education, this becomes a liability. The very people this policy is supposed to protect may end up more exposed.

And none of it addresses the deeper issue.

Crime, Guns, Economy

Trinidad and Tobago is close to Venezuela.
Venezuela has guns.

We have a Coast Guard that, for decades, has not seemed able to prevent things coming from Venezuela. Whether this is by design or incompetence, I do not know. But the speculation exists, and it exists for a reason.

Fear is useful in politics.

Economic disparity is rising around the world. Trinidad and Tobago is no exception. More disparity, more violent crime. There is data to back that up.

Our economy is still centered on lubricants and gas. If you do not work in those areas, your options are limited. If you want to succeed, you often leave. If you stay, you find a way to survive.

And if guns are easy to get, that becomes a career path for some.

The angrier the economy makes people, the more dangerous the crimes become.
It stops being about taking something.
It starts being about punishing you for having more.

No government here has tackled that root cause.
Just quick fixes and photo ops.
Corruption drags it all down.

Wrapping It All Together

None of these things exist in isolation. They feed each other.

Adding more guns might score political points. It might even feel good in the short term.
But in the long term?

I do not see the foundation.
I see political theater.

The borders are still wide open.
The economy is still unimaginative.
And the thinking feels like borrowed templates, not grounded solutions, copied from a country with endemic gun control issues.