By Clint Chan Tack, Newsday TT

UNC SENATOR Arnim Smith announced he was surrendering his gun to Ag Police Commissioner Everald Snaggs, but warned that he would retaliate against any police officer who chooses to harass him.

Addressing a news conference at Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday's Port-of-Spain office yesterday, Smith said contrary to media reports, he complied fully with police officers when he was stopped at a road block in Curepe on Friday night and passed through two roadblocks earlier that night without incident. The UNC Senator told lawmen he had a licensed firearm in his car and showed them the license. "After this press conference, I am going across to the Commissioner of Police (COP) and hand over my gun. I am going to hand it in, thanks to the media who chose to set up my life," he declared. Smith revealed that on Saturday he pleaded to no avail with one daily newspaper (not Newsday) not to run a picture of him handing over his gun to policemen because it would threaten his family's safety. "You all (media) just like kidnappers. All you study is to sell your papers for a dollar. You don't care about people's lives. I feel that I am being set up by the press. I have a gun almost ten years, nobody knows that. Now the whole of TT know and by extent the outside world because people read the Internet. I think I am safer without the gun now because without the gun nobody will come at me. We live in a society where the media who are speaking about crime, help promote it. They are irresponsible," he said.

Smith warned he would not tolerate harassment from any police officer. "I will defend myself by any means necessary. They will have to kill me. I will retaliate," the Senator declared. Smith also alleged that in "no part of the world will anybody search a Member of Parliament unless they have him under surveillance for some kind of crime" and all parliamentarians were now targets for criminals. Smith also called for Snaggs to be confirmed as CoP. "We need a CoP. We don't need somebody who is uncertain about the future and cannot take decisions," he declared. UNC chairman Wade Mark wondered whether Smith was viewed as some type of criminal, and claimed that Smith's missing car keys could be used to set-up the UNC Senator. "This is not a police state," Mark said.