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Jamaica destroys 2000 guns in furnace more to continue
Bunting, who recently announced that he hopes to develop new policies encouraging police use of non-lethal weapons such as Tasers to stem a high rate of police killings, told reporters that reducing stockpiles can also “remove temptation” from rogue officers who may plant weapons.
He said a crime spike so far in 2012 shows that advances the Caribbean country has made combating gangs and crime since 2010 are fragile.
“We can’t let up in our efforts to combat crime,” Bunting said.
With arsenals to rival police firepower, gangs whose turf wars have long plagued gritty parts of the Caribbean island are blamed for the majority of Jamaica’s homicides. The large majority of the gangs’ weapons are smuggled from the United States.
Illegal guns come in on freighters and in “guns-for-ganja” deals by fishermen, who carry homegrown marijuana to nearby Haiti and return with pistols, revolvers and submachine guns many of them believed to be from the U.S. as well.
On Wednesday, officials will destroy roughly a half ton of ammunition at the cement factory.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press
