Former Premier Alex Scott urged his Parliamentary colleagues to ensure the Horton Committee’s report mirrors the success of the Pitt Commission by helping bring gun violence to an end.In an impassioned House of Assembly speech, Mr Scott said the answers to breaking a tragic spiral of murders lie within the extensive research carried out by Randy Horton’s joint select committee on violent crime.But warning his own Progressive Labour Party is “on notice”, the veteran Warwick politician said the committee’s efforts would only bear fruit if MPs ensure they follow through with its raft of recommendations.Mediating with gangs, tougher rehabilitation and regular reviews of the police force are among the suggestions in the committee’s 101-page report.Mr Scott reflected how the 1978 Pitt Commission, of which he was a member while an Opposition PLP MP, helped pave the way for a riot-free Bermuda.“We had come to believe in Bermuda there was the riot season,” recalled Mr Scott.“The efforts and the direction and the recommendation of the Pitt Commission were such that we have had no riots, no assassinations, no events requiring the convening of such a body since that report.“So I want members to know that this effort can be fruitful. It can be an agent of change. We can use it as a valuable tool to put paid to the current crisis that we are experiencing.“When we have our young men and we know them first as children and then tragically have to see them marched one after another, row on row, through a court system with the title of murderer attached to them, this is a serious time.“This is a very serious condition and the Country has to address it if we are not to lose not only them, not only future generations, but actually lose the Country itself.”Mr Scott said the report should be named after Mr Horton because of his relentless efforts which now need to be matched by fellow politicians and the public.“The Pitt Commission was successful because members on both sides committed themselves. I feel that the Horton Committee has to be approached in the same way,” he said.“There has to come the moment in time when we roll up our sleeves. The institutions have to embrace it; churches have to embrace it; clubs have to embrace it; the community at large have to embrace it.“We have lost a significant segment of our community. A generation has been lost. We will have to put in place methodologies that address certainly youngsters, to see that they are redirected. We will have to support our police first because law and order has to reign supreme.“We will have to revisit how we do most of the things that touch upon the family, that touch upon this young man, that shape the society that we have become. They didn’t create themselves.“This is not just another piece of Parliamentary business. Mr Speaker, this is not another exercise that ends as you dismiss us all this morning.“If we do not take the Horton Committee recommendations to heart, if we do not commit our resources to following on the recommendations, we commit ourselves to a future that’s going to be just like the past few years: murder after murder, sadness piled on sadness.“It will impact on our way of life, our quality of life, our economic life. This is a challenge to all of us, not only in Parliament but to every Bermudian.”Mr Scott, who is retiring from politics at the next General Election after more than three decades, said ill health has kept him away from the House in recent months, but that he had driven in during the early hours of Monday.“It was when I heard the member’s call to arms to deal with this matter that I knew I had no right to expect others to be doing the Parliamentary work I should find myself a part of,” he explained.“No Bermudian should feel they are outside of this. There’s no Bermudian, black, white, tall, short, young or old that’s not part of this crisis now. If there’s a change, we all have to be part of the change.“There’s got to be law and good order in this Country. The Progressive Labour Party Government is on notice.“You can’t put this responsibility on the Opposition. We can’t put the responsibility on anyone else but ourselves. We are charged now to follow up on the Horton Committee recommendations. The Honourable Member has done his part.“Now it’s for the Government, for the Cabinet, to take this issue and matter seriously. That’s what we as an Opposition required the Government at the time to do with the Pitt Commission: take it serious.“We held the Government ministers’ feet to the fire. Now if there’s any remaining responsibility for Chairman Horton, it’s to keep the Cabinet’s Honourable feet to the political fire.“He should now ensure that the members, the governing members on both sides of Parliament, follow up on his very excellent beginning.“He’s creating a vehicle for change on a very vexing problem. He’s to be congratulated but only history will report whether his efforts remain gathering dust.“It will not change anything without us doing everything we can to see an end to this very, very tragic period in our history. But it could work.”