Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley has given the assurance that the Barbados Police Service will get whatever it needs to bring firearms cases before the courts in a timely manner.
“Whatever the police need to be able to bring the case before the judge in the shortest possible time and certainly not exceeding three months, but preferably four to six weeks, they will be given, because everybody in this country must know that if you have a gun and you are caught with it, you will pay the price and quickly so,”she told the House of Assembly yesterday during debate on the Supreme Court Of Judicature (Amendment) Bill, 2026.
She said while penalties for firearm offences had already been increased, what was needed, concomitant with passage of the legislation before the House, was “a clear recognition by the police of what is necessary to present a case before the court, in the shortest possible time”.
The amendment increases the number of judges in the High Court and establishes a Firearms Division, bringing the number of High Court Divisions to five, with the existing Civil Division, Criminal Division, Commercial Division and Family Division.
Mottley said a dedicated Gun Court would shorten the process for getting cases before the judge in this instance.
“Typically, the average gun case does not have any witnesses. Invariably, it is the ballistics officer, the person who found the gun as a member of the law enforcement community and possibly somebody to corroborate the evidence of the person who found the gun . . . and the accused who may or may not avail themselves of the opportunity to speak. So it defies rational expectation as to why those cases cannot be heard in four to six weeks.”
The Prime Minister commended the positive messages being conveyed by this year’s Pic O’ De Crop calypsonians, saying she hoped they would reach teenagers “who are being encouraged to participate in activity that can only lead to them having short lives and to parents grieving . . . because the activities in which they are involved, there is minimal buffer for recovery if their bodies are riddled with bullets”.
She appealed to all parents, regardless of their circumstances, to pay attention to what their children were doing.
“For those children you have over 18, I ask you to have some conversations with them and to reason with them, while directing and guarding the ones under 18, because there is no sense in crying, there is no sense in coming to beg for mercy. If your child is using guns and shooting people, then [they will feel] the full weight of the law.
“In your instance as a parent, you may prefer the full weight of the law to be applied because you can still go and visit them at Dodds. But for others who have received the other penalty, which is the riddling of their bodies with bullets, your only hope is to pull a picture from your phone or from your albums and remember mentally what the interaction used to be like,” she said. (GC)
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