Gun laws in Jamaica Gun laws in Jamaica Gun laws in Jamaica began to be tightened in the early 1970s, when Jamaica experienced a rise in violence associated with criminal gangs and political polarization between supporters of the People's National Party and the Jamaica Labour Party. After a rash of killings of lawyers and businessmen in 1974, the government of Michael Manley attempted to restore order by granting broad new law enforcement powers in the Suppression of Crime Act and the Gun Court Act. The Suppression of Crime Act allowed the police and the military to work together in a novel way to disarm
LGBT rights in Jamaica marriage. Neither one of the two major political parties in Jamaica has expressed any official support for rights for its homosexual citizens. However, at a televised debate in late December 2011 between opposition leader (and former prime minister) Portia Simpson-Miller of the People's National Party (PNP) and then-Prime Minister Andrew Holness, she said she would consider appointing anyone she felt was most qualified for her cabinet regardless of sexual orientation and added that she wanted to see conscience votes allowed by the major parties on LGBT rights issues in parliament. Although Simpson-Miller was criticised by some social conservatives for her