The Tribune

By LAMECH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

ljohnson@tribunemedia.net

FIVE fewer guns are on the streets of the capital after they were confiscated by police over the weekend.

In the first of the five discoveries, on December 13, officers from the Selective Enforcement Team acted on a tip that led them to Potters Cay Dock around 12.45pm where they conducted a search of a boat, finding a handgun and a quantity of ammunition.

Two men, ages 45 and 35, were taken into custody in connection with the find.

Thirteen hours later, around 1.35am on December 14, officers from SET conducted a search at a home on Mangrove Avenue in Yamacraw Sub-Division.

Four men, ages 62, 32, 31, and 20, along with a 36-year-old woman, were taken into custody after police uncovered a handgun and a quantity of ammunition and marijuana.

Nearly an hour later, officers from the Drug Enforcement Unit, acting on a tip, conducted a search of a bushy area at Balls Alley off Shirley Street, where they found a handgun.

No one was arrested in this matter.

Shortly after 4am on Saturday, Mobile Division officers went to Ernest and York Streets on a tip and upon arrival, they observed two men acting suspiciously.

On seeing the officers, the men dropped an object and fled on foot.

The officers caught the two men and retrieved the object thrown on the ground and found it to be a handgun.

The two men, aged 21 and 20, were taken into custody.

Then on Sunday, around 12.30am, officers from the Firearms Tracing and Investigations Unit acted on a tip that led them to Mangrove Avenue in Yamacraw where they discovered a handgun in a garbage bin.

No one was arrested.

It was nearly two weeks ago in the Court of Appeal when president Justice Anita Allen spoke out on the prevalence of guns and gun violence in the country.

A firearms and ammunition possession convict, Marvin Martin, appeared before the court hoping to have his sentences for two separate gun offences in 2010 run concurrently, as opposed to serving three years for each case, bringing his total prison sentence to six years.

Martin said he had been on bail for some time awaiting trial for the first case when new charges were brought against him for the second offence.

The admission that he had re-offended while on bail for the same offence resulted in the judges questioning why they should interfere with the decision of the sentencing magistrate.

“You know the havoc being wreaked on society by guns? You read the newspapers, right?” Justice Allen asked Martin.

“Yes, ma’am,” he answered.

“Everyday. . . there’s gun violence, just about everyday,” Justice Allen said.

Justice Allen then ruled that having considered the nature of the offences, “and the prevalence of the offence in the Bahamas”, the magistrate made an appropriate decision.