Black Immigrant Daily News

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Black Immigrant Daily News

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Black Immigrant Daily News

Last season’s beaten finalists Jamaica College (JC) hammered St Mary’s College 13-0 in their opening Group B fixture of the ISSA/Digicel Manning Cup competition on Tuesday.

Jhavier Lynch, Dillion John, and Donte Campbell all grabbed two goals each on matchday three as JC, the winningest school in the competition with 30 titles, ran riot on their home ground at Old Hope Road.

In the other Group B games, St Jago High opened their campaign with a 2-0 victory over Cedar Grove Academy and St Catherine High started with a 3-0 win over Holy Trinity High.

Over in Group E, Mona High also secured a big victory with a 9-0 thrashing of Kingston High in their opening game of the season while Wolmer’s Boys’ School defeated Camperdown High 2-0 in their opening game.

Over at Excelsior High, Campion College and Clan Carthy battled to an exciting 2-2 draw in the first of a Group F doubleheader.

Kai Myles netted both goals for Campion College in the 38th and 63rd minutes while Naeem Walsh in the 12th and a 45th-minute penalty by Justin Patterson had twice given Clan Carthy the lead.

In the second encounter, Excelsior High scored a last-minute goal to snatch a 2-2 draw with Kingston Technical High School.

Richard Andrews gave Excelsior a 37th-minute lead but goals from Tedane Williams (48th minute) and Jadean Forbes (53rd minute) pushed the visiting Kingston Technical to the verge of victory, but that was not to be as Nickalia Fuller struck with basically the last kick of the match for a share of the points.

Over in Group D, St Andrew Technical High School (STATHS) kicked off their campaign with a 2-0 win over Norman Manley High and Jonathan Grant edged Dunoon Park Technical 1-0.

The competition continues on Thursday.

TUESDAY’S RESULTS

Group B Jamaica College 13 St Mary’s College 0St Jago 2 Cedar Grove 0Holy Trinity 0 St Catherine 3

Group D Jonathan Grant 1 Dunoon Technical 0Norman Manley 0 St Andrew Technical High 2Tarrant 2 Spanish Town 1

Group E Mona High 9 Kingston High 0Wolmer’s Boys 2 Camperdown 0

Group FCampion College 2 Clan Carthy 2Excelsior 2 Kingston Technical 2

THURSDAY’S GAMES

Group AArdenne vs KCMeadowbrook vs St George’s CollegeWaterford vs Calabar

Group CCharlie Smith vs Bridgeport HighEdith Dalton vs Tivoli HighHaile Selassie vs Vauxhall

Group FClan Carthy vs Kingston Technical at Alpha InstituteCampion vs Jose MartiExcelsior vs Cumberland High

All matches are scheduled to start at 3:30 pm.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

Former National Security Minister Robert Montague says it is time to arm all law-abiding Jamaicans.

“Any decent law-abiding citizen, with a clean police record, no mental (health) issues or domestic violence conviction should be able to acquire a gun permit within 45 days of applying,” insisted Montague.

He made the call in the House of Representatives last Wednesday, during the debate on the Firearms (Prohibition, Restriction and Regulation) Act. The Bill was passed without amendment.

In justifying his call for the general populace to be armed, Montague argued that over the past 10 years, only 29 firearm holders were murdered in the country. By contrast, on average, 1,300 Jamaicans are murdered each year, with illegal guns featuring in more than 80 per cent of the killings.

Montague also pointed out that over a 10-year period a total of 627 combined major crimes, including shootings, robberies and praedial larceny have been committed against firearm holders, suggesting a firearm is a deterrent to criminals.

Montague told the House that there are 45,000 licensed firearm holders in Jamaica and 167,000 guns as there are persons with multiple licences, in addition to security companies that utilise armed guards as well as gun clubs.

“There’s an average of 30,000 firearm holders over the last 10 years. Therefore, some 0.09 or one per cent of licensed firearm holders have been murdered over a 10-year period or an average of 0.01 per year.

“At 627 combined incidents of crime against firearm holders, it shows that only two per cent have been affected by crime over the last 10-year period or an average of .2 per year,” said Montague.

“The figures clearly show that if you’re armed, criminals don’t mess with you,” he declared. He noted that criminals have more advanced weapons than the police in many cases and that the police and army are held at bay for hours sometimes in a shootout (with gunmen).

“Yet, we’re calling on law-abiding citizens to join the fight against crime. What must they join with, dem two long hands, and two stone and a cutlass? And what they must do with those?” the former security minister asked.

Montague lamented that the long wait for a gun licence sometimes criminalises the process. He insists that we must level the playing field and give the advantage to the law-abiding person.

For those who would object to arming the general population by pointing to countries such as Australia that recently disarmed the society and “are okay”, Montague said: “Australia is not confronted by the factors that beset us. They don’t have our historic crime rate or the amount of high powered illegal weapons that are everywhere in Jamaica”.

Continuing, he said: “Disarming works for Australia. It’s fit-for-purpose for them. Let’s wish them well and get on with a fit-for-purpose solution for Jamaica’s problems”.

And the former security minister said that when a criminal is about to break into your house, he should pause and wonder, “How many guns are in that house?”

“When they’re planning to steal a farmer’s crop or animals, they have to wonder if the farmer has a gun and what are the chances of getting shot,” he added to applause from his colleagues.

“We must give back the advantage to the law-abiding citizen; right now the criminals have the advantage,” said Montage.

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