“The time has come now for us – community leaders, political leaders, church leaders – all of us need to come together in terms of finding a solution and bringing the community back together again, in terms of ridding our streets of guns and just violence in general,” Penn said on the NDP radio show recently.

Penn’s call comes in the wake of several recent gun murders in the territory as well as a recent shooting in front of a popular supermarket, which law enforcement officials have since described as attempted murder.

He also urged young men to put down their guns. He further issued a clarion call for persons to work on different ways to settle their differences.

Community based solution and introspection needed

Meanwhile, Premier Andrew Fahie last month made an impassioned plea to the public to not only assist the police but to also look at a more community-based approach to solving disputes.

He made the statement on the heels of the second murder in the territory for the year.

The Premier said each citizen has to say ‘enough is enough’ and hold young men more accountable regarding their whereabouts just as they do with young women.

He also called for more introspection from persons as part of efforts needed to address the escalating gun murders in the territory.

The Premier noted that while some parents ensure they do all they can with their children, others allow their children to run their homes.

He also bemoaned the fact that parents are no longer taking their children to church, even as they themselves are attending church.

According to the Premier, parents are allowing their children to be out at establishments at night when they shouldn’t be. He further said they are dismissing this by saying that their children are out with friends.