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
Jamaica Labour Party Jamaica Labour Party The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) is one of the two major political parties in Jamaica, the other being the People's National Party (PNP). While its name suggests that it is a social democratic party, the JLP is actually a conservative party. However, it has longstanding ties to the Jamaican labour movement. It is the current governing party, having won 32 of the 63 parliamentary seats in the lower house of parliament (House of Representatives) in the 2016 general elections. The JLP gained another seat in the November 2017 St Mary South East By-Election, increasing its majority to