The other bill that was introduced and will have to go for lengthy consultation is the Firearms Amendment Bill and the Crime Control and Criminal Justice Bill. The firearms bill has to do with who all get arrested when a gun is found at a property, and the crime control and criminal justice has to do with bail for firearm offences.
As has been widely publicized, the gun laws have come under heavy criticism as being oppressive and based on a presumption of guilt, rather than innocence.
So, government has changed it - but the legal drafting went right up to the very last minute and from the PM's comments today it was clear that it is still a work in progress:...
Jules Vasquez
"The average man and woman would just want to know what has been describe as an odious position in the law that everyone in a household or in a vehicle gets taken under joint enterprise."
Prime Minister Dean Barrow
"They are looking particularly at that. That is one aspect that's being dealt with; the question of joint possession and trying to ensure that there is not this automatic joint possession charge, looking at who is the head of the household and providing for circumstances where in effect you can't charge at all if you are to avoid the mischief and then it's also looking at the question of bail where when you are charge you can't get bail for 14 days and trying to make a distinction and to say that where somebody is before being charged known to be of good character, doesn't have gang connections, that sort of thing that the provision that you can't get bail for 14 days would not apply. So I think it is getting at the central aspects of the current law that need to be fix and you may be right and so perhaps we could have taken the chance and simply pass it today, but I think it has to be better to wait for a couple weeks. We are going to try to come back to the house as soon as Independence as I a possibly can - wait a couple of weeks, give people a chance to have their say and if there is more fixing that we have come up with that needs to be done then let's try to get it right by the time we come back for second and third readings."
The date for public consultations has not yet been announced.
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