For­mer Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Gary Grif­fith is ap­plaud­ing CARI­COM's ini­tia­tive to clas­si­fy gun vi­o­lence in pub­lic spaces as an act of ter­ror­ism.

Speak­ing at the clos­ing me­dia con­fer­ence of the 48th CARI­COM Heads of Gov­ern­ment Meet­ing in Bar­ba­dos, Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley said lead­ers have agreed that in­dis­crim­i­nate pub­lic shoot­ings, where per­pe­tra­tors en­dan­ger every­one present, will now be treat­ed as acts of ter­ror­ism.

Grif­fith be­lieves it should go fur­ther, how­ev­er, and says any­one found in pos­ses­sion of high-pow­ered weapons ca­pa­ble of caus­ing mul­ti­ple fa­tal­i­ties at a time should be con­sid­ered a ter­ror­ist.

“If you have the equip­ment, it means that you are now a ter­ror­ist, be­cause that was your in­ten­tion,” he ar­gues.

“For ex­am­ple, if some­one in this coun­try has an au­to­mat­ic weapon that can kill 35 per­sons in three sec­onds, his in­ten­tion is to com­mit se­ri­ous acts of vi­o­lence on cit­i­zens of this coun­try. And that,” he says, “could be deemed an act of ter­ror­ism.”

He added: “This is­sue of il­le­gal as­sault weapons is a tick­ing time bomb. It just takes one dri­ve-by shoot­ing at a bar or night­club to tar­get one in­di­vid­ual, and dozens of per­sons are go­ing to be killed.”

And Grif­fith is hop­ing that this de­c­la­ra­tion by CARI­COM, and the Gov­ern­ment, won’t be just lip ser­vice.

He says the req­ui­site leg­is­la­tion should be amend­ed and im­ple­ment­ed as quick­ly as pos­si­ble.

“When held with such weapons, per­sons should be in­car­cer­at­ed for life. Make it a cap­i­tal of­fence,” the for­mer top cop stat­ed, not­ing that would be a step in the right di­rec­tion to tip the Scales of Jus­tice back in favour of law-abid­ing cit­i­zens.

“Make the amend­ment to have [ter­ror­ist des­ig­na­tion] in­clu­sive of any­one with an il­le­gal au­to­mat­ic weapon,” he said, point­ing out that such a cap­i­tal of­fence will be non-bail­able, and such per­sons won’t be back out on the streets to ter­rorise the cit­i­zens of this coun­try.

Mean­while, Prime Min­is­ter Row­ley said he an­tic­i­pates the leg­is­la­tion will be draft­ed in the com­ing months.