not Bermuda needs tougher laws including a mandatory life sentence, whatever that amounts to, for any person convicted of committing a crime using a handgun.

We totally agree that the people of Bermuda do not want guns in Bermuda and certainly do not want people using guns. However we think that a dispute over the law books is a waste of time especially when there are tough sentences in existence. What we need is action and not more political waffle.

It is unlikely that tougher laws on the books deter anyone unless they are used. What deters crime is the likelihood of arrest and the likelihood of conviction. If you do not have those two things then all the laws in the world are virtually useless.

Bermuda has gone a long way toward restructuring the Police Service in an effort to increase detection and arrest. That has been a great success. What we need now is concentration on the court system so that the public is at the least reassured that cases are being dealt with responsibly. We need to look at appointments to the bench and we need to strengthen prosecutors.

There are all sorts of suggestions for revising the court system floating about because the public is unhappy with what it sees. It has been suggested that Bermuda should have a court for drugs cases and that the court should be presided over either by three judges without a jury or by one judge with a special jury panel. There are people who have revived the age-old suggestion of a three judges and no jury system for all Supreme Court cases. Any number of serious people think that the magistrates should be given greater powers and that a much wider array of serious cases should be heard in Magistrates' Court by a magistrate sitting alone, reserving the Supreme Court and the jury system only for major criminal cases and complex civil cases, the civil cases always using special juries who can deal with complex and technical information.

What we are seeing is the reaction of a public which has been alarmed now for some years over crime and drugs. The public has seen the restructuring of the Police Service and knows the extraordinary job being done by Colin Coxall.

They know that results can be achieved. Now, almost inevitably, the public wants to take the next step. It wants the court system restructured just as the Police Service has been restructured. It may be expensive because right now the salaries offered do not attract top people but it is something Bermuda cannot do without. Any country has to have confidence in its legal system and in recent years confidence in Bermuda's legal system has eroded.