A former UBP Minister has called the idea of a gun amnesty "laughable" and instead called for harsher punishments for offenders.

Former Home Affairs Minister Quinton Edness said: "Offering amnesty for firearms is laughable, and that's what the community is talking about today. They need to come up with better solutions."

A guns amnesty was discussed in the wake of the shooting of 62-year-old Richard Gaglio who was shot in his Smith's home nine days ago at the end of a poker game at his home.

He is currently being treated at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, where his condition is said to be improving.

Premier Ewart Brown met with the Governor, Sir Richard Gozney, following the latest shooting to talk about a guns amnesty.

However Mr. Edness added: "I think it's going to serve no useful purpose. I don't think it will get any guns from criminals.

"If they want to do it, fine, they might get some blades turned in, but they won't get any guns from criminals."

Instead of offering an amnesty, Mr. Edness called for the Government to implement legislation with teeth to punish offenders, and give Police officers in the field better protection.

"Amend the Criminal Code so that those people who assault officers should get life imprisonment," said Mr. Edness. "Make sure all officers have weapons training and arm them, they need to be able to retaliate.

"We need a special task force to go undercover and ferret out and attack anyone with guns. Do nothing else but pursue information on firearms."

Praising the Police for doing what they can, Mr. Edness joined the call for the public to get involved in helping to identify people who are causing the violence in the community.

"If these criminals want to harass this community, the community needs to get tough. If you know people have guns, you should tell the Police," he said.

Mr. Edness also suggested making prisoners, particularly those imprisoned for violent offences, perform manual labour in view of the public as part of their sentence.

"Give them some hard time. Expose them in the community. They need to be known, and embarrassed," he said, while calling for harsher penalties for burglary and robbery.

"Anyone who breaks into a house with someone in it, they should get life. Especially if they're armed," he said. "If the prisons fill up, we need to build more prisons.

"The cost for society is far greater then the cost of building onto the prisons."

Mr. Edness also called for a renewed push on education within the penal system.

"They should all have to study for their GEDs, so that when they get out, they can at least fill out an application, they can at least read the application," he said.

"I believe that the Governor, the Government and the Police Commissioner could, and should come up with something more dramatic, something far more creative to tackle this crime problem."