Ameen tells farmers: Stand your ground

News Mya Quamie 2 Hrs Ago

St Augustine MP/Local Government Minister Khadijah Ameen and Minister of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries Ravi Ratiram, right, receive avocadoes from farmers during the farmers meeting at Deolal Mungroo Shed (A-Boy) at Orange Grove Road, Orange Grove on July 18. - Photo by Ayanna Kinsale

ST AUGUSTINE MP Khadijah Ameen is emphasising the significance of licensed firearms for farmers in light of the proposed stand-your-ground law.

“Many people may feel it is not applicable to farmers but farmers are businessmen. They go to the garden, they go to the market with goods and money and a lot of the transactions are done in cash.

“...They are at the mercy of bandits and people who are coming armed with illegal guns, taking their crops, stealing their equipment and they cannot protect their property.

“...Many of them have been followed home, robbed by bandits at gunpoint and they don’t even have the chance to defend themselves.

However, she said the proposed stand-your-ground laws will help equip more farmers to defend themselves and their property, as many in her constituency and throughout the country have applied for a licensed firearm.

“Stand your ground legislation has to do with our ability to protect ourselves, as well as the anti-home invasion laws. This pertains to people who are business owners, private residents but also farmers," she said during a farmer's meeting at the Deolal Mungroo Shed in Orange Grove on July 18.

She encouraged farmers to read drafts of the legislation to be circulated by Attorney General John Jeremie to better understand what it means and what power the law will give them.

She also invited farmers in St Augustine to attend a consultation on the legislation which will be held on August 6 at the National Hockey Centre in Tacarigua.

The UNC is hosting consultations in all 41 constituencies.

On July 7, at a UNC Monday night forum, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar disclosed that the bill and a policy paper had been already drafted.

The consultations will take place in all constituencies, he added.

During the general election campaign the party promised to modify the current legislation to make getting legal guns easier and allow for more people the right to bear arms.