I was shocked to read in the Daily Herald that Fire arms are legaly sold in French St. Martin!!!!!!
Is it really necessary to sell guns on an island that is almost entirely driven by tourism? Whats up with this? Comments encouraged!!!!!
Um, so? I have no idea what the relationship you're trying to create between tourism and selling guns. Remember, tourists are NOT the ones who live there - others do, and they may have a need for firearms.
Your point can't be argued. You are correct. I don't have residency in either St. Martin Or St. Maarten & I can go to French St. Martin and buy a firearm. I think they should be a little more selective in who can purchase a firearm.
My thoughts frankie are you can buy guns in almost any country in the world, and if you are so concerned about it why did you wait 5 months to respond to evergladesfl.
I'm not interested in gun policies in other countries. This is the St. Maarten Forum, where St. Maarten is discussed. As far as my concerns tedly.
I am a tad concerned considering that as of August of this year St. Maarten had the distinction of having the highest crime rate in the Netherland Antilles. At the same time had twice the Murder rate of Curacao 12 to 6. Curacao by the way holds the record (72) in one year. I can assure you a majority of these crimes were not committed with a bow & arrow. These facts were published in the August 14, 2006 issue of the TODAY newspaper and were confirmed by Chief Prosecuter Taco Stein. Armed bandits robbed a casino and our cable company in broad daylight. Reason for concern? I think a little! I beleive the residents and shop keepers should certainly have the right to arm themselves for protection, that I agree with. My point is that arm sales should be done with permits, registrations etc. Apparently not the way it is done by our neighbors on the French side. I'm sorry for the delay in responding. I was unaware a time limit was placed on responding to forum posts.
I will be sure to be more prompt in the future.
First Frankie, of course there is no time limit in responding to a post. I simply just questioned how concerned you truly were if you waited the 5 months to respond to an answer to your original post. I will be the first to admit that I am not aware of any numbered facts regarding murders, robberies, etc. with regards to the use of guns in St. Maarten/St. Martin or anywhere else in the world. Personally I hate guns, really see no use for them and hate an open policy regarding the sale of guns. I like our Canadian policies regarding guns. I am also aware that this is a St. Maarten forum and I just made a simple comparison to generally how the world is run. It's good that you included some facts with your last post, however based on time frames it doesn't look like they will be approaching the record of 72 achieved by Curacao. This is a fact that I don't know, but what is the population of Curacao compared to St. Maarten/St. Martin? Evergladesfl made some very good points in his/her post, saying that tourists are not the ones that live on the island, and you make the most important point that guns should be sold soley through the use of permits. I agree with this statement 100%. These are just everybodies comments as you encouraged from your original post.
Thanks for your reply. Curacao population is listed at 192,000 and SXM both sides are about 70,000. I think my original post was very poorly written. It was a broad topic. My reference to SXM being a tourist driven society,is correct,But to approach the gun sales issue based on that thought actually was a little foolish, and narrow minded on my behalf. Evergladefl made that point clear and with the way in which I presented my post I admit evergladfl's point is correct.
So glad that you clarified your thoughts. Anyone, be it a local or tourist can bring their concerns forward regarding gun control and open gun sales. The unfortunate part is that the government probably won't listen to words and then will learn the hard way when tourist levels may start to drop. Sometimes actions speak louder than words. If this does occur, I would think that it would take any number of years to reach a bustling tourism level again. Generally speaking some tourists have experienced crime and this would give them a bad taste and in turn may share their experiences with friends, then them with other friends and in the end you will have people shying away from going to SXM. All this may or may not happen. I use alot of if's and may's simply because I am not up on facts regarding tourist levels. My wife and I visited SXM for 1 week 3 years ago, had a great time and didn't have any problems what so ever. This left a positive memory for us and when we do get around to repeats we will definately leave our options open to travel again to SXM. We are experienced travellers so we are aware that dilligence for safety is a big key for our enjoyment of a vacation. Does this mean that we won't ever get robbed, absolutely not. For the record I do agree 100% with your stance on gun sales. Thanks for the input Frankie.
From January till November 2006 we had 16 murder at the island. Many tourists robed and injured. The image from The Friendly Island is false.
I believe the information from the newspaper!
2 wemen tortured and killed and the killer is still on the run!