Insight by Sunil Kumar

Jan.23rd. 2024

Alas ! our peaceful and tranquil Motherland Sri Lanka is suddenly being torn apart by gun violence. Yes! there are guns both legal and illegal everywhere, some in hands that have no compunction to use them readily and others who do have trepidations but still use them on various grounds on various unacceptable lame excuses which are a shambles as it involves precious human lives! and the fact of the matter is, many innocent people are dying or getting critically injured on an alarmingly regular basis, and a serious assignment of concern for the Administration and the far-thinking benevolent President of ours to resolve post haste are the ramifications for Sri Lanka become positively overwhelming.

A day does not pass when there is news of some shooting or the other around the country and this in a land where the teachings of Buddhism and Ahimsa predominantly along with the other Religious Doctrines which disperse the message of love, kindness, and peace constantly as well as futilely perhaps which sometimes seem to fall on deaf ears and retarded minds.

Alarmingly the availability of firearms to undesirables like underworld gangs seems rife together with the legal availability of weapons to Government Officials of higher rank who in turn carry them towards self-protection they say but is this really necessary? If an ordinary person like you or me tries to own a gun it is a virtual impossibility and the restrictions are cast iron and virtually impossible to overcome.

There is however the availability of weapons for farmers and some extraneous circumstances where the problem of gun ownership still is beyond reason. There have been reports that some of these farmland issuing of weapons are sometimes used on humans rather than marauding wild animals so it is a no-win situation where guns in the arms of irrational humans are a definite No No! in a land with a population of over 21 million.

Ironically  Sri Lanka has only just recently recovered from an internal armed conflict of decades involving Tamil Insurgents whose accessibility to weapons only portrayed the ruthlessness and meaninglessness of it all yet the violence continues sans the insurgents. That it was the weapons of the defending Armed Forces adds to the chagrin of irony which in that instance favoured Sri Lanka to her advantage.

It is cause enough that Law Enforcement and Armed Forces Officials carry weapons out of necessity to maintain Law and Order yet there are circumstances of reported misuse there again and the grief of victims continues. The question comes up again do we really need weapons to maintain peace in a land that once was the epitome of peace and tranquility going back to medieval times?”

Is Sri Lanka fast becoming another America with a huge gun problem with armed and indiscriminate civilians, officials and, and dangerous criminals alike one hates to think !! In America, human life in a manner of speaking is cheap as in the instance of the George Floyd wanton killing in a mountainous list of unmitigated killings in a land steeped with an apathetic albeit ludicrous gun culture which is not only abominable but despicable where at times even household pets take precedence over human life as the favoured entity!!

To cap it all up there are reports of high-ranking officials reaching even as far as former Presidents who seem to condone some of these violent acts by cronies and favoured friends by pardoning them from incarceration and horrendous killing where a recent case of similarity emerged but was commendably revoked by the Supreme Court and the criminal was sent back to Death Row where he truly belonged. This seems one case among many in the recent past where perpetrators get away with impunity.

In the not-too-distant past and even previous to that there have been many gun-related killings of prominent as well as relatively unknown people in a long line of wretched and needless assassinations of beloved personalities who were icons of Sri Lanka sometimes planned as well as others, random but the incidence as well as its existence needs to be stamped out in the best interests of a country which depends on tourism and the Heritage Stamp of significance all over her which draws millions to her vistas of beauty and global significance. A big ask perhaps but surely of the utmost importance and priority.

It may also be of great favour to Sri Lanka and in her best interest if the Death Penalty now dormant and ineffective was reintroduced to viable means as a deterrent despite the lobby against Capital Punishment as one might ask “So where does the buck stop?” with an unused gallows gathering rust!

GUNS, THE DETRIMENT AND SCOURGE OF HUMANITY IN SRI LANKA AS WELL AS GLOBALLY NEED TO BE DONE AWAY, CONTROLLED MORE STRINGENTLY, OR RESTRICTED AT BEST TOWARD A SANE AND PEACEFUL EXISTENCE OF HUMANITY.