7 News Belize

God & Guns
posted (May 27, 2010)
Today is the first day of the two day gun amnesty being sponsored by the Association of Evangelical Churches. The President of that association, Pastor Eugene Crawford says the response so far has been lukewarm. Now, at the official level, the amnesty has the backing of Law Enforcement officials and has been endorsed by the Council of Churches - but at the street level it has yet to catch on. But with Operation Jaguar turning the screw on those in possession of firearms and ammunition, Crawford admits that the timing may have something to do with it.

Pastor Eugene Crawford, President of Association of Evangelical churches
"Up to this point I would say that it's going pretty well. By mid-day today we have collected a few guns. I can go in detail as to the types and so forth but I think that it is meeting a part of our objective. We do hope that by the end of the exercise which is on Friday evening that we would have look back and say well thank God we've been able to get a number of guns from off the streets. We can't only measure our success by the amount of guns that comes in, we've got to look on the holistic response from our street march, from the words of affirmation for people to say listen 'I am with you' we are working together from Christian businessmen and businesses on a whole."

Jim McFadzean
"And Pastor Crawford, why do you believe Belizeans are so reluctant to jump on board to an effort that one would assume is so easy for us in this climate of fear to participate in."

Pastor Eugene Crawford
"People always have their personal feelings and opinions, what is the church doing are one of many questions being asked, but we believe that we are moving with God's timing. We believe that this effort by the church, and let me say something Jim, that we have gotten good support from the council of churches. So it's not only the Belize Association of Evangelical Churches. We've gotten good responses from the Catholics, Anglicans, Methodist and they are not always physically here, we have gotten their endorsement. Last night in our march we had a very good turnout from the St. Martin De Porres Church which is a member of the council of churches. This is a Belize issue and we are bigger than that. We rise to the occasion to work together, we want to seen as the church in Belize and all the other names to be just left aside."

Jim McFadzean
"You've had a few returns of guns so far, but are these people getting the privacy and confidentiality that you promised?"

Pastor Eugene Crawford
"Most definitely, most definitely, yes, I will say yes all the way because when the individuals came they were greeted very warmly without any hesitancy they just delivered the gun, no questions being asked. They were immediately escorted to a table where we have some items we said we would be giving, and they got and went away smiling. It was so easy that I think that it is encouraging for anyone else that would want to come that they would be treated the same very way, with utmost respect."

The two day amnesty will come to an end at 4 P.M. tomorrow, Friday. The guns and ammunition collected by the church will be handed over to Police for destruction at a future date to be announced. The collection centers are at the Assemblies of God Church on Freetown Road, the Youth For the Future Office by the Bel China bridge and the CYDP office. Crawford says the church will make it its business to ensure that all guns collected will be accounted for at the time of destruction.

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