Celebratory Gunfire

As the Libyan people emerge victorious from their eight month ordeal, they look back with sadness at the death toll; the freedom Libyans thrive in today came at a steep price. No Libyan will ever be the same, every one lost some one or has a missing friend or relative, though no formal figure has been released the death toll is estimated to be over fifty thousand and what is more shocking is that most of the dead, injured and missing are below the age of thirty. It seems that Gaddafi was not content with ruining the past he wanted to his destruction to reach out into the future too by killing our youth.

After being exposed to the six months long NATO bombing campaign and so much violence you’d think that this nation has taken all it can take of guns, instead a dangerous reckless phenomena emerged, it is that of celebratory gun fire, people celebrating the collapse of Gaddafi’s regime by shooting deadly guns in the air, sometimes causing  death and injury.

Another source of huge concern is that the majority of those who are armed are civilians who have had no or little training. They do not know how to use or handle these arms properly and therefore are a danger to themselves and others.

It’s vital that these weapons are collected to as soon as possible for the stability of the country and for the safety and wellbeing of the Libyan people.

Repeatedly both the current Libyan leadership, Mr. Moustafa Abdul Jaleel, and the media have tried to put an end to this phenomenon, but neither has been successful thus far.

In my opinion this macabre obsession with guns is due partly to the helplessness experienced by the Libyans, in the last few months indeed through Gaddafi’s reign of terror during the last four decades, so this random gun shooting in the air is a form of expression. A display of empowerment and it is also a misguided way of expressing their absolute freedom after being stifled for so long it’s a sort of pinch me just to check I am not in a dream. The bullets exploding in the air is the sound which confirms to these youths that they are not dreaming. They really are free.

Now that we have identified the problem we need to cure it because after losing so many lives we cannot afford to lose one more soul needlessly, Libyan lives have become very valuable after being worthless for so long.

Moustafa Abdul Jaleel could put his foot down I suppose, but he is such a wise and compassionate man and is deliberately being patient because he knows that these youths have been through hell and their traumatic experiences are the cause of this problem MAJ ,as often called in twitter, will not be patient forever and frankly the Libyan citizens are getting fed up of it too.

Creative solutions are required for the disarmament of the Libyan streets so that only the law enforcement agencies whether they are the police or the Army are the only armed people on the streets. That being said, only the formation of a National Armed forces will reassure people of their safety and most will be happy to turn in their weapon voluntarily once that is apparent to them.

Those who won’t part with their weapons so easily maybe encouraged to do so by offering gift vouchers, it could be something as trivial as a 200 dinars worth of mobile phone credit or even a six months worth of gas vouchers, youths will be queuing up to give up their guns.

 Of course it won’t hurt the cause if the government issued a zero tolerance policy to deal with any one still carrying firearms after all these incentives are offered.

Celebratory gunfire is a serious issue that needs to be given the immediate attention of the authoroties, what good is freedom if you are not safe to enjoy it!