The lead story in yesterday's STAR spoke about residents being forced to flee their homes on Solitaire Road in south St Andrew, after being reportedly threatened by gunmen.

If the allegations are true, then we have lost our society to gunmen. It also means there may come a time when none of us will be safe in our homes, as gunmen will demand that we leave our hard-earned places of rest for the simplest of reasons.

While the police are unaware of the incident, there must be some amount of protection from the state for these residents. They cannot simply be left out in the cold with no help whatsoever and nowhere to go. In fact, they may have already become a strain on the persons or family members they are living with, as that translates to sharing meagre resources.

We can only hope the situation is resolved soon and that the 26 persons' lives will return to normal. We also hope that steps will be taken to deal with the imminent threat of more gang violence before it gets out of hand, because failure to do so will eventually affect us all.