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THE Bruce Golding- led administration is examining the feasibility of a gun amnesty as part of its drive to rid the streets of illegal weapons.

"It is something that we are examining because we will not preclude any approach that would reduce the supply of guns in the society," Security Minister Dwight Nelson confirmed in an interview with the Sunday Observer.

The idea of a gun amnesty was revived in the wake of the late-May Tivoli Gardens incursion to flush out rampaging gunmen and apprehend accused drug lord Christopher 'Dudus' Coke, who is now in a US jail awaiting trial on drug- and gun-trafficking charges.

But Nelson, in the same breath, said that the immediate priority lies in cutting off the flow of illegal guns into the country.

"If you get 10 guns off the road and 20 guns come in, then you are two steps backward," he said.

Nelson was responding to calls by influential clergyman Rev Al Miller and two other pastors for the measure to be implemented.

Miller's call for a gun amnesty came during a recent sermon at his Fellowship Tabernacle church in St Andrew, during which he accused politicians of "unofficially putting guns in the hands" of supporters in bygone years.

"They must now officially take them out by allowing this amnesty and forgive their offences," said Miller, who is now before the courts charged with harbouring a fugitive and perverting the course of justice after Coke was captured in the car he (Miller) was driving four weeks after the Tivoli operation. Miller said he was taking Coke to hand him over to American authorities at the US Embassy in Kingston.

Miller, who is temporarily off the National Transformation Programme in the Office of the Prime Minister, was subsequently joined in his call by Monsignor Michael Lewis, rector of the Stella Maris Roman Catholic Church, and Bishop Alvin Bailey of the Holiness Christian Church.

Notwithstanding Nelson's pronouncement, a high-level security ministry insider told the Sunday Observer that there were reservations within the administration about declaring a gun amnesty for fear that it would not be a success and would attract mainly "old, rusty guns", as was the case when former Prime Minister Michael Manley employed the measure in 1972.

Manley's amnesty was also viewed as a failure because it attracted just 723 guns. Under an amnesty, persons who surrender their illegally possessed guns are granted immunity from possible charges.

Whether or not an amnesty is declared, history will show that Golding's is not the only administration to be haunted by the result of Manley's amnesty, which was the second to be declared in Jamaica.

Despite myriad calls, no administration has, since 1972, implemented the measure. Not even Manley made a repeat of the amnesty, even though Jamaica's gun-related crime rate had spiralled further out of control when he again took office in 1989 after losing the 1980 general elections to the Edward Seaga-led Jamaica Labour Party.

The police had estimated at the time that there were 20,000 illegal guns in the island, a figure critics believed to be "overly" conservative. Statistics showed that only 550 illegal guns were being recovered annually up to 1999.

Knight said during an interview at the time that he did not think a gun amnesty was the right approach and expressed concerns that only "old, rusty and defective guns" may be surrendered.

Speaking recently on the issue with the Sunday Observer, Knight, now an Opposition senator, said that the "failure" of the Manley amnesty, along with studies of similar initiatives in Barbados and outside the region, informed the decision not to call an amnesty.

"Their experience [were] helpful," said Knight, who noted that an amnesty would not have worked at the time.

The issue was again thrust into the national spotlight three years later when influential dancehall act Ninja Man handed a loaded handgun to then Superintendent Reneto Adams during his performance on the annual end-of-year stage show Sting in December 2002. The move triggered a flood of calls for a gun amnesty, but Security Minister Peter Phillips took no such action.

Citing the outcome of Manley's amnesty, Phillips said in a recent interview with the Sunday Observer that he did not yield to the calls as he believed that it would only "give criminals a chance to change out their old guns".

"That's the point," said Phillips, when asked if the Manley amnesty was a factor.

Bemoaning Jamaica's "high incidence of gun violence", Manley declared his gun amnesty on March 3, three days after the February 29 general elections. The Gleaner quoted Manley as saying: "I am hoping that those who have resorted to this way of life will take the opportunity to turn in their guns so we can make a new start in Jamaica."

At the end of the 21-day amnesty, which saw the surrendering of rifles, shotguns, automatic pistols and revolvers, a disappointed Manley directed the Police High Command to marshall its resources to get the outstanding guns.

His amnesty followed one declared by the Labour Party in 1967, during which 450 firearms and 1,228 rounds of ammunition were netted.

Critics have said that the Manley amnesty was also a failure because it did not curtail gun-related crimes, which resulted in the subsequent creation of the Gun Court in March 1974 to deal with gun-related offences.

"Gun-related crimes were certainly down for the 21-day period [of the amnesty] but it went right back up after that and continued," said Observer columnist and political historian Michael Burke.

The decades following the 1970s saw a proliferation of more powerful guns across the island, leaving successive administrations grappling for a solution. Between 2007 and last year, the security forces only managed to seize 1,835 illegal guns and 20,729 rounds of ammunition.

The gun is still the weapon of choice in the majority of the island's average murders of 1,000 per year. In 2007, the gun factored in 79.1 per cent of the island's murders, according to figures provided by social entrepreneur and Observer columnist Dr Henley Morgan, who operates out of the tough inner-city community of Arnett Gardens in South St Andrew.

Approximately 100 guns and close to 15,000 rounds were found in and around the areas of Tivoli Gardens and Dehnam Town alone, during the limited State of Public Emergency declared just before the Tivoli operation and which concluded last month after the Opposition PNP abstained from a parliamentary vote on its extension for a third month.

Sociologists believe that the increase in guns came about as politically aligned thugs became more financially independent, raking in huge sums of cash from criminal enterprises such as extortion and drug-running, which enabled them to import their own guns.

Still, there are those who believe that a gun amnesty could bear fruit today. University of the West Indies professor of sociology and political analyst Richard 'Dickie' Crawford said that an amnesty, if paired with social intervention programmes and other incentives, would be hugely successful.

"Some of these incentives could be the offering of loans to those who turn in their guns so they can establish their own legitimate businesses, plus the provision of jobs," Crawford told the Sunday Observer.

Crawford believes too that the recently passed Crime Bills, with their tough penalties for gun crimes, are incentive enough for the illegal guns to be turned over.

At the same time, there are also concerns within inner-city communities -- pockets of which are often at war -- that the police may not be able to offer them protection against rivals should they turn in their guns. Residents in these communities often rely on area thugs for protection. Dr Morgan believed this was a real concern for residents.

"One thing the men here will tell you is that they will put down the gun until it gets rusty but they are not giving them up. The reason for that is they don't have confidence in the security [forces]," Morgan told the Sunday Observer.

"They feel that when the conflict with the groups on the other streets raises its ugly head again they [will] be left defenceless... It's a very, very strong feeling," added Dr Morgan.