Fake gun fear Video vixen worried about possible prison time for imitation firearms

A video vixen says Jamaica’s firearms legislation is not only unfair but is also hampering businesses and creativity in the entertainment industry.

The woman, who works extensively in music videos, said she was stunned when she saw reports that a music producer had received a life sentence involving imitation firearms. The vixen said she realised that some of the imitation firearms that she had been keeping as props could potentially put her in trouble.

“A one a the vixen dem who work fi me send me it because she know the producer. Mi get up same time and go bun dem (the fake firearms) because mi couldn’t believe,” she said.

“We use props every day when we go pon shoot and because my company do a lot a music video, mi just keep them. Mi even rent them out when the artiste want them fi use,” she said.

Yesterday, lawyers gathered outside the Supreme Court for a silent protest against aspects of the Firearms Act, particularly the mandatory minimum sentence – which is 15 years – and the treatment of imitation firearms. The lawyers stood with placards, including one which read: “A real gun and an imitation gun are not the same thing.”

Jamaica Bar Association President Tenneshia Watkis said the protest was intended to send a strong message that change is needed.

“We need the results that we need to get. We are four years out, we have seen the injustices in the system and we are now here for a change,” Watkis said.

The protest was organised by the Advocates’ Association of Jamaica and the Jamaican Bar Association, in collaboration with bar associations across the island. Attorney Iqbal Cheverria said the issue needs to be examined beyond the political debate surrounding crime and punishment.

“We are for hard time on crime but we are saying that judges need to have the discretion to look at the individual cases to see if there is the need for 15 years. We support 15 years for gun offence but it cannot be the starting point for the conversation,” he said.

Cheverria said the current law creates a situation where possession of a prohibited weapon can attract the mandatory sentence, while other serious offences are treated differently.

“As it’s possession alone, that gets 15 years. If you murder someone, that’s not possession of prohibited weapon, that’s murder and that 30 years. And that’s not what we are arguing about that now,” he said. “We are pushing the legislature to act now to give back judges their judicial authority to treat with the cases how they need to as to how to have always treated with.”

Asked why the lawyers were taking action now, almost four years after the legislation came into effect, Cheverria pointed to what he described as mounting delays in the justice system.

“Because we see the issues now, it’s clearer than day. The backlog is clear. Three years ago a matter would go to the case management court and be done in six months,” he said.

“Now we have a great delay. Personally, I have a client that has been in custody since late 2023 and the matter has still not been tried.”

“And we have signalled to the powers that be that we wanted this to be done from the jump but no one has been answering the call.”

For the video vixen, however, the issue extends beyond courtrooms and into the pockets of people working in the entertainment industry. She said she is losing business because of the uncertainty surrounding imitation firearms and believes the Government needs to address the situation “because poor people a struggle too much”.

“When mi a pickney, as much as how me a girl, mi used to play with [toy] gun to. Mi have a son and a Christmas time mi buy him toy gun, so him ago get 15 year too?”